Technology and digital innovation specialists have told Nigerian teenagers to stop treating the internet as a place they only watch and start using artificial intelligence and digital skills to fix problems around them. They said the country’s growing digital economy will need young people who bring creativity, discipline, critical thinking and character, not just the ability to tap a screen.
The charge came during Teens Week at Victoria Island Worship Centre, held from Monday 3 August to Sunday 9 August 2026 under the theme Wired for Uncommon Exploits. On Sunday a panel titled Uncommon Exploits as 21st Century Digital Natives took up how teens should live with AI.
Mrs Tosin Momoh, a product manager and computer science graduate, said teenagers should treat AI as a tool for learning, making things, getting work done and solving problems, not as a substitute for their own thinking. She told students to know their subjects first before turning to ChatGPT and other large language models, and to use those tools to check their work, spot mistakes and understand more, not to skip the work. Instead of asking how to solve a question from scratch, she said they should try a rough answer, then ask the system to explain the steps and what they should do better.
She said the speed of AI gives Nigerian youth room to build solutions and businesses in education, fashion, content, coding and website work. She also warned against leaning so hard on machine answers that they never learn the skill themselves. Those building online communities, she added, should set a clear purpose, values and rules, and give members space to learn, contribute and find mentors.
On safety she warned teens about phishing, fake job offers, social engineering, odd links and putting too much personal information online. Different passwords, two factor authentication where it exists, and not feeding AI platforms extra private details were her practical advice.
Engineer Victor Momoh, a Microsoft certified trainer and Microsoft Excel MVP, gave the keynote. He said Nigeria needs young people who stop only consuming technology and start creating, spotting needs in their streets and solving them. Consumers scroll through TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, he said. The shift he wants is from scrollers to builders, people who design and make. Digital skill matters most, he argued, when it meets a real need. You only get the full benefit when you solve a problem.
Competence, he said, takes effort, discipline and patience. Talent is not enough. Study, grow the skill, stay disciplined, and put God given ability to work. Character matters too. Gifts should build people up, and exploits should glorify God. He told them to treat Nigeria’s difficulties as chances to innovate, not as reasons to wait for someone else to finish the job. His summary was simple: know God, develop yourself and deploy yourself.
As AI and new tools keep changing school, work and business in Nigeria, both speakers said young people must pick up digital skills early enough to take part. Access to gadgets will not decide the country’s digital future on its own. What will matter is whether its youth understand these tools, create with them, apply them to Nigerian problems and use them with care. For Zoyols News, the week’s message was that the aim is not merely to consume technology, but to grasp it, build with it, fix what is broken through it, and handle it responsibly.
