As Nigerians reflect on the struggle for independence from foreign exploration and exploitation, it is imperative that we broaden our perspective and transcend the intangible frontiers that delineate sovereignty in the 21st century. One of these frontiers is data.

In a world where data has become the sine qua non in our interactions, spanning daily experiences to artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and digital infrastructures, our nation must not only safeguard its borders but also its digital assets, as data equates to power, and power must be localized and owned by the people.

The digital revolution is reshaping the world, including governance, education, health, and development. However, without control over how our data is generated, interpreted, and stored, we risk becoming subjects of the systems that purport to serve us. This issue extends beyond privacy; it encompasses narrative, value, and agency.

Nigeria\'s historical experiences with colonialism serve as a poignant reminder of the consequences of external powers extracting resources without accountability or reciprocity. Today, we are witnessing a digital manifestation of this phenomenon, a form of digital colonialism.

Foreign AI systems, trained on global datasets that barely reflect our realities, languages, histories, and cosmologies, exacerbate this issue. Furthermore, our digital behaviors are harvested, and sold by companies headquartered beyond our borders.

The Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, endorsed by over 50 African states, constitutes a powerful commitment to shaping AI development around shared values, ethics, inclusion, transparency, and local benefit. It acknowledges AI as a transformative tool but insists that its foundations must reflect our nation\'s lived realities, rather than imported assumptions.

To fulfill this vision, we must emphasize data sovereignty, the right of nations and communities to determine how data is collected, governed, and used, particularly in the training of AI systems. Nigeria\'s wealth extends beyond minerals or markets; it also encompasses stories, languages, and philosophies. Our languages possess unique ways of reasoning and relationship, yet they are considered low-resource in the context of AI, lacking the structured digital data required for recognition or utilization by machine learning models. Consequently, they remain invisible to the digital systems shaping our world.

Beyond spoken word, artistic and symbolic knowledge, such as the Oduduwa symbols of Yoruba or their spiritual and communal codes, warrant preservation and interpretation.

For centuries, our histories have been filtered through colonial languages, distorting or diluting our national thought. In this era of digitization and data, we can either permit our cultures, languages, and data to be absorbed and reshaped by others or insist on our right to define the systems that are defining humanity.