The Dean of the Faculty of Computing at Nile University, Professor Joshua Abah, has said that introducing artificial intelligence is meant to improve productivity rather than make humans jobless.
Abah made this statement during the StemCon 2025 tech training held at Nile University on Tuesday. Speaking at the event, he addressed concerns that AI could replace human roles, stressing that technology is designed to enhance production and efficiency, not to substitute human labour.
“One of the challenges we have is when people begin to think that technology is a replacement for humans,” Abah said. “It is not. What it does is improve production and efficiency; it is never a replacement. Critical thinking, as applicable to humans, can never be applicable to machines because AI does not have emotions.”
He further explained that AI lacks the emotional attributes inherent to human beings. “They don’t have emotions; emotion is an attribute of humans. Even though we try to mimic human beings in some ways, AI can never be a replacement,” he added.
Abah also highlighted the importance of integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to address societal challenges, including farmers-herder conflicts and food sustainability.
“All of the challenges we are talking about are addressable by STEM. We talk about food sustainability, and STEM provides just that, particularly in agriculture. In terms of smart and precision farming, you don’t necessarily need soil to grow crops. Nowadays, people assume that to farm, you must have land, but that is not the case,” he explained.
He noted that plants do not specifically need rain but rather water, which can be sourced in various ways. “We don’t have to wait for rain to farm. We can provide water, and that need can be addressed by IoT (Internet of Things) and the Internet of Everything. These technologies allow us to provide the precise quantity of water and nutrients required by each plant, no more and no less,” he said.
Addressing the issue of farmer-herder conflicts, Abah remarked that technology could help mitigate the problem, especially in the North, where cultural hostility and boundary disputes make farming difficult. “People can no longer go to the farm due to these challenges, but that can be addressed via technology,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the convener and founder of Product Hub Africa, Victoria Oladosu, emphasised the organisation’s commitment to equipping students with STEM skills, resources, and scholarships.
“We want to move away from the norm where students feel they must become lawyers, engineers, or doctors. We want to make people understand that they can aspire to more than that,” Oladosu said.
She explained that the initiative aims to expose students to diverse career paths beyond conventional professions. “There are so many fields to explore rather than sticking to the traditional ones. That’s why we don’t limit STEM to schools alone; we have visited several institutions and are now engaging universities,” she concluded.
The StemCon 2025 event served as a platform for stakeholders to discuss how STEM education can drive innovation and solve real-world problems, particularly in agriculture and sustainable development.