Picture this: it is 2027, an election year in Nigeria. You wake up, reach for your phone, and see a video that makes you stop breathing. A popular politician, looking straight into the camera, says something outrageous—something that could inflame tensions, ruin a reputation, or even sway an election. Your heart pounds. You share it before you’ve even brushed your teeth. Hours later, fact-checkers reveal it was a deepfake, generated by artificial intelligence. That uneasy feeling—the moment when truth and technology blur so completely that you can no longer trust your own eyes—is exactly what Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, is trying to warn us about. Speaking in Beijing on Thursday at the 7th World Media Summit, an event organized by Xinhua News Agency and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, Onanuga delivered a paper titled “AI and the Future of Global Communication.” His message was not a distant, academic lecture. It was a loud, urgent alarm bell. As Nigeria marches toward the 2027 general elections, where new political leaders at both national and sub-national levels will be chosen, artificial intelligence has become a double-edged sword in political warfare. It can entertain, inform, and inspire. It can also lie, manipulate, and destroy. Onanuga’s central point is simple but profound: unless we build safeguards now, the same technology that helps us navigate our cars and discover new music could help tear apart the trust that holds democracy together.
Onanuga did not speak in vague generalities. He pointed directly at the tools we all use every day. Social media platforms like X, Facebook, and TikTok, he said, have become the main highways for AI-generated videos and images, moving at lightning speed for political messaging, satire, and pure entertainment. In the heat of a campaign season, these platforms are not just places to catch up with friends or laugh at memes. They are battlegrounds for the hearts and minds of voters. Some political actors, Onanuga acknowledged, use AI to spread outright falsehoods—fake speeches, manipulated photos, fabricated news clips designed to make an opponent look corrupt or dangerous. Others use it satirically, creating parody content that may blur the line between joke and reality, leaving audiences unsure what is true and what is invented. Still others use AI for positive reasons, producing slick videos that highlight a candidate’s achievements, explain complex policies, or communicate with voters in dozens of local languages. The challenge is that all these uses exist side by side, and the average voter is left with the impossible task of sorting fact from fiction, especially when the content looks perfectly real. The technology is so advanced that a fake video can be indistinguishable from a genuine one, and by the time the truth comes out, the damage has already been done. Onanuga stressed that this is not a distant dystopian fantasy. It is happening right now, in real time, as political actors at every level become more sophisticated in their use of digital tools. We are, in his words, “in the thick of the political season,” and AI has become a starring player in the drama, for good or for bad.
But why does this matter so deeply? Onanuga’s warning goes beyond the immediate risk of a misleading video. He is concerned about something much more profound: the slow, steady erosion of public trust. Democracy, at its heart, depends on a shared sense of reality. Citizens need to agree on basic facts in order to debate issues, hold leaders accountable, and make informed choices. When AI makes it possible to create convincing falsehoods at scale, that shared reality begins to crumble. People retreat into echo chambers, believing only what aligns with their existing opinions. They become suspicious of everything, even genuine news and legitimate government communication. Election results, instead of being accepted as the will of the people, are dismissed as manipulated or fake. Trust in journalists, institutions, and even the electoral process itself declines, sometimes to the point of crisis. Onanuga warned that without appropriate safeguards, AI could threaten public trust and undermine the integrity of democratic institutions. In a country as vibrant, complex, and diverse as Nigeria, where political tensions can already run high and misinformation has the power to spark conflict, this is not a hypothetical concern. It is a clear and present danger. That is why Onanuga called for greater responsibility from every actor involved: politicians who create and share content, media organizations that amplify it, and ordinary citizens who consume and spread it. He was not asking for censorship or fearmongering. He was asking for something harder: a collective commitment to honesty, verification, and accountability in the digital age. Media houses must label AI-generated content clearly. Politicians must resist the temptation to use lies as a strategy. Citizens must pause before hitting share. In a world where technology moves faster than ethics, responsibility is not optional. It is survival.
One of the most striking aspects of Onanuga’s speech, however, is that he refused to paint AI as purely evil. He is not a technophobe, and he does not want us to return to the Stone Age. In fact, he took time to acknowledge the extraordinary benefits that artificial intelligence has brought to humanity. Today, AI governs our existence in ways we often take for granted. When you get into your car and it warns you about a pedestrian crossing the street, that is AI. When your navigation app maps the fastest route to avoid traffic, that is AI. When doctors use machine learning to detect cancers earlier, when scientists use algorithms to model climate change, when mathematicians use supercomputers to solve problems that would take humans lifetimes, that is AI too. Onanuga called this the “Leviathan impact” of AI on our lives—an influence so massive that we can no longer ignore it, nor would we want to. “I believe we can no longer ignore AI’s penetrating impact, most of it beneficial, unless we want to return to the Stone Age,” he said. This nuanced perspective is important. It reminds us that technology itself is not the enemy; the way we use it is. Fire can cook our food or burn down our house. A knife can heal through surgery or harm through violence. AI is no different. It is a tool, incredibly powerful and ever-present, and its moral weight depends entirely on human decisions. By acknowledging this, Onanuga avoids the traps of both naive optimism and paralyzing fear. He invites us to see AI for what it is: an astonishing achievement of human ingenuity that must meet its match in human wisdom.
Onanuga also expressed cautious optimism about the global response. He observed that governments, scientists, individuals, and international organizations like the United Nations are beginning to recognize the urgent need to regulate AI and address concerns about its growing influence. Around the world, there are increasing calls for transparency from tech companies, for ethical guidelines in the development of algorithms, and for international agreements that prevent AI from becoming a weapon of mass deception. But he made it clear that recognition is not enough. The world must act before it becomes too late. “Build guardrails quickly to save humanity,” he concluded. The word “quickly” is crucial. Technology is evolving exponentially, while laws and regulations crawl forward at the speed of bureaucracy. Every month that passes without meaningful safeguards is another month in which AI can be weaponized in elections, media, and public discourse. Onanuga’s call for rapid action is not just directed at presidents and prime ministers. It is directed at all of us—tech developers, journalists, civil society groups, and everyday citizens. We do not all need to understand the intricate mathematics behind neural networks, but we do need to demand accountability from those who build and deploy these systems. We need to support independent journalism, promote digital literacy, and hold political actors to a higher standard. International cooperation is especially vital because AI does not respect borders. A deepfake created in one country can go viral in another within minutes. No single nation can solve this problem alone. The World Media Summit itself, by bringing together media professionals from different countries, represents a step in the right direction—a place where shared challenges can be met with shared solutions.
In the end, Onanuga’s address in Beijing was more than a policy statement. It was a human plea, rooted in a deep concern for the future of communication, democracy, and truth itself. The 7th World Media Summit brought together journalists, editors, and media stakeholders from around the globe to discuss the developments shaping global communication and the future of the media industry. Onanuga’s contribution to that conversation was a reminder that the future is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we build, daily, through the choices we make and the content we create. For Nigeria, the road to 2027 is not just a political timeline; it is a test of whether the country can navigate the digital revolution without losing its democratic soul. For the world, it is a preview of challenges that will only grow more intense. AI can be a force for extraordinary good—helping us understand complex issues, connect across differences, and solve age-old problems. Or it can be a weapon of chaos, deepening divisions and poisoning public life. The difference will not be determined by technology alone. It will be determined by us: by our willingness to demand truth, by our courage to resist manipulation, by our commitment to see beyond the pixels and ask who created this content and why. Onanuga’s voice, carried from a conference hall in Beijing to living rooms across Nigeria, is a call to awaken from our passive consumption and become active guardians of reality. He urged the world to build guardrails quickly, before it is too late. But he also left us with hope—hope that governments, scientists, and ordinary citizens can rise to the occasion, can choose wisdom over convenience, and can protect the fragile flame of democratic trust from the winds of technological change. The election may be in 2027, but the battle for truth is already here. The question is not whether AI will play a role. It always will. The question is whether we will know how to play our part responsibly before the damage becomes irreversible.