Ethics, Prospects and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in Public Sector Administration in Nigeria

The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in public sector administration has emerged as one of the most consequential governance debates of the early twenty-first century. In Nigeria, federal agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the Nigeria Police Force have adopted AI-enabled systems without a binding national regulatory framework to govern their use. This paper examined the ethical implications, prospects and institutional challenges of AI adoption in Nigerian public administration, with particular attention to questions of data privacy, algorithmic bias, accountability and citizen inclusion. Drawing on Institutional Theory as developed by DiMaggio and Powell (1983) and the Responsible AI Governance principles advanced by Florida et al. (2018), the study adopted a qualitative research design employing multiple case study analysis and systematic document review. Three cases were selected: the FIRS Tax Pro-Max tax administration system, the NIMC digital identity programme and the Nigeria Police Force’s acquisition of surveillance technologies. Findings revealed that AI adoption in Nigeria’s public sector is predominantly driven by external pressures from international donors and multilateral institutions rather than by domestically formulated policy priorities. Ethical governance frameworks remain absent or non-binding, data privacy violations have been documented in government-linked data programmes, algorithmic bias risks are structurally embedded in government datasets and accountability mechanisms are fragmented across institutions with overlapping mandates. At the same time, evidence from Tax Pro-Max and the federal payroll system demonstrated that AI can produce measurable improvements in revenue collection and administrative efficiency when deployed under appropriate governance conditions. The paper concluded that Nigeria’s central challenge is not whether to adopt AI but how to govern its adoption in a manner that is lawful, equitable and democratically accountable. Six policy recommendations were advanced, targeting the National Assembly, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and relevant federal ministries and agencies.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Public sector administration, AI ethics, Data privacy, AI governance.