Every 8th of September, the world observes International Literacy Day, as declared by UNESCO on 26 October 1966. Nigeria echoes this celebration with goodwill messages, panel discussions, symposiums, and reading sessions, only to revert to silent complacency until the next annual reminder. This year’s observance stirs something deeper than mere ceremony. It compels us to reflect on what literacy signifies for a generation that scarcely reads to learn scrolling for quick dopamine while being told what and how to think. This close examination became the central focus of the PEN Nigeria Young Writers Committee. One influential opinion came from Awareness Temitope Timothy, founder of the Awareness Literary Society (ALS), who argued that each generation inherits its own literacy divide. For our grandparents, it was the ability to farm and hunt; for our parents, access to formal education and computer literacy; and for us, the dividing line has silently shifted again-this time onto Artificial Intelligence.
Nigeria struggles to maintain stability across nearly every development index, with literacy at the core of most issues. The naive child, bold enough to play with the lion’s mane, may never live to recount the experience. The child does not understand the peril of the lion’s den. Similarly, Nigeria’s relationship with the tools shaping our minds is fraught with ignorance about the dangers of unethical data harvesting and misinformation.
As civilisations transition from offline to online, scarcely a moment is spent cultivating the discernment necessary to navigate this shift. Now, we are progressing again, from the internet to AI, at an even more rapid and disorienting rate. Beneath the sleek chat interfaces and instant answers, something else is unfolding. Data is being mined like gold, digital atrocities emerge like a haze, and fortunes are amassed off the attention and information we freely surrender. We call it convenience. In reality, it’s extraction, data is the new oil, and we are the fields.
AI is to learning what the calculator once was to mathematics: a tool that can either enhance understanding or silently supplant our reasoning faculties. A student who grasps numbers uses a calculator to accelerate their work; one who never learns to reason mathematically becomes dependent on a machine to think for them. The threat of AI in our schools, newsrooms, workplaces, and homes lies not in the technology itself, but in our tendency to outsource thought processes and become overly dependent. This essay is not exclusive of AI too as most editing tools have inculcate AI into its software.
This is the most troubling aspect: the systemic erasure of our essence. Forceful colonialism may be history, but the glitz surrounding AI has subtly opened our doors without resistance. No invasion has occurred; we have opened the gates ourselves logins in hand, unread terms and conditions, giving up our agency, one click at a time. Data has become the new currency of empire, and we are bartering ours away, hoping to dodge danger.
If the previous literacy divide was about who could read a newspaper, this one concerns who can code, who can question outputs, trace biases, and recognise when convenience has morphed into control.
Literacy Day should inspire not rebellion against technology, but a mental uprising against passive consumption. It calls for educating young Nigerians not only to utilise AI tools but to interrogate them. Ask the question. Whose data trained the model, whose interests it serves, and whose voice might be quietly silenced? Critical thinking, not device ownership, must be regarded as the true indicator of digital literacy.
Nigeria must wake up and stop sleeping in the den. No rescues are coming; there will be no ships at the shore this time. Treaties will be inked with terms and conditions, and our literacy levels will determine this century’s outcome. Literacy is what safeguards our self-agency.
Choose education; don’t be the only one trapped in the den.
. Abdulazeez is a poet and author of the poetry collection ‘Soul R:nts: A Journey from Within’. She serves as treasurer of PEN International, NigerCentrenter, Chair of the Young Writers Committee of PEN Nigeria, and resides in Lagos. umuhfaisal@gmail.com