Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has urged global leaders and innovators to place humanity above technology, warning that technological advancements must not come at the expense of human values.

Speaking at the ‘Education Above All’ plenary of the 12th World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar, Senator Tinubu said the world must “strike a balance” in its digital evolution.

“We should be the drivers of technology. Technology must lead; we should not remove human values from technology,” she said.

The First Lady, who shared the stage with her counterparts from Lebanon and Syria, praised Qatar’s remarkable progress in education and emphasized that no religion prohibits the education of girls. She reaffirmed the Nigerian government’s commitment to ensuring that every child has access to opportunities that education provides.

“Everything begins with education. We are doing all we can as a government to advance the education sector. We must collectively look at the bigger picture, knowing that Nigeria has a huge human capital resource and that is what we thrive on,” she stated.

Senator Tinubu highlighted the global achievements of Nigerian youths across various sectors—arts, fashion, film, technology, and agriculture—adding that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu considers innovation and technology the cornerstone of human capital development.

According to her, digital literacy has expanded access to information in Nigeria, despite its challenges.

“Nigeria, being an emerging economy, digital literacy has helped us because it is faster and reaches more people. It also comes with its downside. Our young people are either using it for good or negatively. We believe continued empowerment will help them do better,” she added.

Chairperson of Qatar Foundation and summit host, Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, stressed the need for education to transform lives and connect young people to new opportunities. Other speakers echoed the call to position human values and ethics at the centre of technological change, particularly in AI adoption.

The 12th edition of WISE, attended by over 150,000 participants from across the world, is themed “Humanity.IO — Human Values at the Heart of Education.”