On 14 May 2026, Olumide Babalola, PhD Chair of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Data Protection Committee, Founder of the Data Privacy Lawyers Association of Nigeria (DPLAN), and author of Privacy and Data Protection Law in Nigeria — delivered the keynote paper at the 13th Ogun State Bar and Bench Forum, where he examined the evolving concept of e-judiciary in Nigeria: its promise, its progress, and its persistent obstacles.
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Drawing on case law, policy research, and comparative global practice, Dr. Babalola traced Nigeria’s gradual judicial engagement with technology, from the Supreme Court’s landmark recognition of computer-generated evidence in Kubor v. Dickson (2013), to the growing adoption of e-affidavits, virtual hearings, and AI-assisted legal research tools across several jurisdictions.
The paper argued that a truly digitalised judiciary goes far beyond allowing lawyers to upload documents online. It requires technology to be embedded across the entire judicial process — from case initiation and management, to hearings, adjudication, and enforcement.
By that standard, Dr. Babalola submitted, no Nigerian court has yet achieved full e-filing, since most existing systems still require some degree of physical intervention at the registry stage.
The submission challenges what has become a popular narrative within the Nigerian judiciary — that the introduction of online document upload portals and virtual hearing platforms in various courts has translated into the arrival of “e-judiciary” in Nigeria. In Dr. Babalola’s framing, those developments are necessary but not sufficient steps on a longer journey towards a judiciary in which technology underpins every stage of the litigation process.
“AI Will Not Replace Judges”
On the increasingly pressing question of artificial intelligence and its place in the courtroom, the paper was emphatic: AI will not replace judges. What it can do and should do is absorb administrative pressure.
Dr. Babalola recommended targeted, incremental AI deployment in areas such as case assignment, legal research, generative drafting tools, and tech-assisted transcription of proceedings areas where AI can relieve the administrative burden on judges and court staff without intruding upon the judicial function itself.
The position aligns with the emerging global consensus that AI is best deployed in the judiciary as an assistive technology, not as a substitute for human judgment in cases that affect liberty, property, status and rights.
The Obstacles Standing In The Way
The paper also catalogued the challenges standing in the way of genuine digital transformation of the Nigerian judiciary, namely:
- limited digital literacy among court staff;
- infrastructure deficits, including unstable power supply and weak internet connectivity;
- institutional resistance to change;
- risks of algorithmic bias;
- data protection non-compliance; and
- growing cybersecurity threats — including a wave of cyberattacks on Nigerian public institutions reported between March and April 2026.
The reference to the wave of cyberattacks on Nigerian public institutions between March and April 2026 is particularly significant, given that any judiciary that increasingly relies on digital case management systems, e-filing portals, virtual hearing infrastructure and cloud-based storage of judicial records is, by definition, only as resilient as the cybersecurity framework that protects those systems.
Five Recommendations
Dr. Babalola closed with five concrete recommendations for the path forward:
- tech-responsive court rules and practice directions;
- fully end-to-end e-filing systems;
- continuous judicial and legal training;
- adequate budgetary allocation for ICT infrastructure; and
- strengthened privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity frameworks.
Taken together, the five recommendations describe a comprehensive reform agenda that goes beyond piecemeal digital interventions and instead reimagines the legal, financial, human, technical and regulatory foundations on which a genuine e-judiciary must rest.
The keynote is the latest in a series of engagements Dr. Babalola has conducted with the Nigerian judiciary on technology and justice, following a similar address at the Lagos State Judiciary New Legal Year Summit in September 2025 and a facilitation session for the Kwara State Judiciary in April 2026.
The continuity of engagement reflects Dr. Babalola’s standing as one of the most consistent voices on the intersection of law, technology, privacy and data protection in Nigeria, and his pre-eminent role as Chair of the NBA Data Protection Committee and Founder of the Data Privacy Lawyers Association of Nigeria.
For the Ogun State Bar and Bench Forum, the keynote provides a clear-eyed map of where the Nigerian judiciary stands on its journey towards digital transformation, where it must go, and the specific obstacles that must be confronted along the way.
For the wider Nigerian legal community, the paper crystallises a number of propositions that are likely to shape the policy conversation in the months and years ahead: that piecemeal digital interventions do not amount to e-judiciary; that AI has a legitimate but limited role in the courtroom, principally in absorbing administrative pressure rather than replacing judicial reasoning; that the cybersecurity, privacy and data protection foundations of any digital judiciary must be strengthened ahead of, rather than after, deployment; and that no digital transformation of the judiciary can succeed without a corresponding investment in tech-responsive rules, end-to-end e-filing, training, infrastructure and budgetary allocations.
As the Nigerian judiciary continues to navigate the opportunities and constraints of the digital age, the keynote delivered by Dr. Olumide Babalola at the 13th Ogun State Bar and Bench Forum offers a sober reminder that the journey to a truly digitalised judiciary in Nigeria has begun but is far from complete.
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