According to a report from The Guardian Nigeria, International specialists in business analysis and emerging technologies have called on the Nigerian government to adopt data-driven automation to improve fairness, speed, and consistency in the justice system.
They noted that legal and policy professionals globally are increasingly applying advanced analytics and predictive tools to streamline judicial processes.
This was the central message from renowned business analyst and strategist, Henry Akinlude, at a webinar titled: “Using Business Analytics and Predictive Models to Inform Legal Decision-Making and Public Policy: A Data-Driven Approach to Justice Reform.”
The virtual event, hosted by the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, convened legal practitioners, academics, technologists, and students to examine how digital tools are reshaping legal systems worldwide, and how Nigeria can position itself to benefit.
Delivering the keynote,Akinlude argued that technologies such as predictive modelling, automated document review, and intelligent legal assistants could significantly reduce delays and inconsistencies in Nigeria’s courts.
He proposed a shift from instinct-driven decision-making to evidence-based approaches, explaining how descriptive analytics could uncover patterns in case outcomes, diagnostic tools could identify causes of judicial disparities, predictive models could anticipate procedural bottlenecks, and prescriptive analytics could recommend targeted interventions.
Referencing global case studies, including the Stanford Legal Analytics Lab in the US and the UK’s HM Courts & Tribunals Service pilot, Akinlude highlighted how data tools had improved case forecasting, accelerated e-discovery, and refined litigation strategies.
He noted that while Nigeria’s legal system remained largely paper-based, the country had the opportunity to leapfrog into a modern, digitally-enabled future.
The webinar also featured the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ibadan, Prof. J.O.A. Akintayo, who stated that Artificial Intelligence on its own could not resolve Nigeria’s backlog in the court system, and that the human element was very important to make this work successfully.
The session concluded with a proposed roadmap for reform: embedding data and automation training in law school curricula, developing Nigeria-specific models trained on local legal data, establishing regulatory standards for responsible deployment, and fostering collaboration between law firms, universities, and technology startups.
In his closing remarks, Akinlude reiterated his call to action, urging Nigeria to take ownership of its justice reform journey.
