By Bakangi Sarah Bare
The Coordinating Director of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Law and Policy Programme Division, Office of the Director General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NASS Abuja, Prof. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, has warned that Nigeria risks “an empty shell of sovereignty” if it secures its borders while compromising democratic values.
Prof. Ladan gave the warning on Thursday, 3rd September 2026 while delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Policy Dialogue organized by Saban Media Services Abuja.
The event, themed “Securing the Sovereign Frontier: Strategic Defence Architecture, Emerging Technologies, and Democratic Integrity in Nigeria,” held at the Armed Forces Events and Multipurpose Centre, Asokoro, Abuja. The Minister of Defence, Retired General Christopher Musa, declared the colloquium open.
Setting the tone, Prof. Ladan anchored Nigeria’s security mandate on the Constitution. “Under Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), it is explicitly declared that ‘the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.’
“This constitutional clause serves as the foundational, non-negotiable social contract between the Nigerian state and its citizens,” he said, adding that: “Fulfilling this mandate requires framing security not merely as a kinetic military endeavor, but as the bedrock of constitutional survival, institutional stability, and public trust.”
Prof. Ladan told participants that the battlefield has changed. “As Nigeria navigates the complex geopolitical and technological terrain of late 2026, the definition of the ‘sovereign frontier’ has fundamentally shifted.
He said, “Sovereignty is no longer exclusively contested on physical landmasses, maritime zones, or isolated battlefields like the Lake Chad Basin and the Sambisa Forest. It is actively fought, compromised, and defended within digital ecosystems, telecommunications routing, cloud servers, and global information pipelines,” stressing that “Borders extend beyond physical landmass and maritime zones into cyberspace, critical national infrastructure, and information ecosystems.”
The keynote speaker called for a new security framework. “Nigeria’s strategic defence architecture must evolve beyond isolated, single-service responses toward a synchronized, inter-agency framework. It must merge physical readiness with sophisticated, technology-driven defensive capabilities. Crucially, this transition must be governed by institutional transparency to ensure that protecting the state does not inadvertently weaken the democratic integrity, rule of law, and civil liberties of the people.”
On technology, he said: “Securing the nation depends heavily on leveraging indigenous innovation, artificial intelligence, unmanned aerial surveillance, and secure communication hardware. Bridging the gap between defense research and practical field deployment under active statutory frameworks is essential for long-term operational success.”
Prof. Ladan identified three key policy instruments for national renewal. He stated: “The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Act 2023 provides a robust legal mechanism to stimulate a domestic defense-industrial complex. By prioritizing public-private partnerships, Nigeria can incentivize indigenous innovations in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), biometric tracking systems, and encrypted tactical communications hardware, systematically reducing vulnerable dependencies on foreign supply chains.” On cybersecurity, he said: “Backed by the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy (NCPS) and the enforcement mechanisms of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.)
Amendment Act 2024, Nigeria possesses the statutory foundation to build an integrated cyber-command. This enables proactive threat hunting, the protection of critical national infrastructure, and the defense of the information ecosystem against coordinated disinformation and state-sponsored cyber espionage.”
On trade, he noted: “The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Digital Trade presents an immense economic and strategic prospect. By establishing harmonized standards for cross-border data flows, cybersecurity, and digital identities across Africa, Nigeria can position its tech sector as a regional hub for secure software, dual-use technologies, and secure cloud infrastructure. This strengthens economic resilience while projecting digital sovereignty across the West African sub-region.”
Prof. Ladan also made specific recommendations to stakeholders. To the Executive and National Security Leadership, he said: “Immediately bridge the execution gap between the National Cybersecurity Policy, the DICON Act 2023, and the AfCFTA Digital Trade commitments to create a unified National Security-Tech Roadmap.”
Prof Ladan also called for the establishment of “a Civil-Military Technology Oversight Board” to “audit the procurement and deployment of surveillance tech, ensuring strict compliance with data privacy rights.”
To the Armed Forces and Intelligence Agencies, he urged them to “Break down institutional silos between the military, Nigeria Police Force, and intelligence agencies by establishing a centralized, AI-driven Joint Threat Intelligence Fusion Centre” and to “Shift personnel recruitment and continuous training heavily toward cybersecurity, electronic warfare, and algorithmic data analysis.”
To the National Assembly, he recommended: “Enact proactive legislation defining the ethical bounds of Artificial Intelligence (AI), automated weapons systems, and facial recognition technologies in domestic law enforcement” and “Ensure that capital allocations under the DICON framework are tied strictly to measurable local capacity building, research output, and technological self-reliance.”
To the Private Sector and Civil Society, he said: “Seize the commercial opportunities within the DICON Act and AfCFTA frameworks to pitch secure, locally built enterprise data tools capable of dual-use deployment” and “act as an independent watchdog against digital authoritarianism, while actively collaborating with state institutions to debunk malicious deepfakes and coordinated disinformation campaigns.”
In his conclusion, Prof. Ladan said: “Securing Nigeria’s sovereign frontier in 2026 requires an understanding that national security and democratic integrity are mutually reinforcing realities, not a zero-sum trade-off. A state that compromises its democratic values to secure its physical geography leaves behind an empty shell of sovereignty.” He added: “By leveraging the statutory weight of the DICON Act, enforcing modern cybersecurity laws, and championing the regional integration promised by the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade, Nigeria can build a formidable, tech-driven defense architecture. Ultimately, grounding this strategic pivot in the sacred constitutional mandate of Section 14(2)(b) ensures that as Nigeria guards its borders, it preserves the vital democratic freedoms that make the nation worth defending.”