Osun plans statewide AI surveillance in Nigeria with a Chinese company: security yes, but with what oversight?

By Premium Times Nigeria · October 20, 2026.

The government of Osun State, in southwestern Nigeria, has announced a plan to deploy a surveillance network across its entire territory. It will include AI-powered cameras, drones and radars. Governor Ademola Adeleke said the project is being developed with the Chinese company Hefei Shengwen Information Technology Company Limited.

According to a statement from the governor's spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke met with company executives on Monday to finalize the details. The delegation was led by Cai Jianfei, director of international operations. The official statement describes a system that would cover "the entire state" and be monitored from a Command and Control Center.

The statement also lists robotics and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, meaning sensors and network-connected equipment. It includes a safe schools initiative and a mobile app allowing residents to connect with the command center. Planned coverage extends to banks, industries, farms, mining areas, shopping centers, bus stations and garages in the main towns and along major routes.

The backdrop is insecurity. Premium Times cites killings linked to political violence, clashes between alleged cults and communal disputes. The organization Kimpact Development Initiative documented 73 election-related violent incidents and 29 deaths between October 2025 and June 2026. In October, Adeleke summoned security chiefs after a spike in incidents. The project would draw on the state's Security Trust Fund.

What the article leaves out matters as much as what it includes. There is no mention of cost, timeline, specific funding or the provider of the data infrastructure. Nor are there details on who will have access to the footage, how long it will be retained or what legal framework protects it. These are gaps in the published information, not proof that such details don't exist.

**Our take.** The insecurity the article describes is real, and wanting to respond to it is legitimate. But a system that watches an entire state, with AI-equipped cameras and a single command center, is an infrastructure of power, not just a technical tool. Its value depends on the rules surrounding it, and that is precisely where the announcement is silent.

Two risks should be kept apart. The first is use: surveillance deployed against crime can end up being used against dissent, which is especially sensitive in a state where violence is largely political. The second is dependence: if the hardware, the software and probably the data are in the hands of a single foreign provider, the state cedes part of its technological sovereignty. In general, this is a pattern repeated in many countries that buy turnkey "safe city" systems.

Nor should we slide into alarmism. Cameras and sensors can help solve crimes and cut response times, while the evidence that they deter political violence is, as far as we know, limited and contested. That AI improves security is not proven by a press release; it is proven by audits and measurable results.

The underlying thesis we defend at Zendoric is that AI can bring about a much better society in the long term, but only if institutions grow at the pace of the technology. In the short term, the minimum bar for a project like this should be clear: an applicable data protection law, retention limits, independent oversight and transparency about the contract. Without that, the risk is building the capacity to surveil first and deciding later, and too late, who watches the watchers.