The Human in the Loop: Why Lagos Journalists Are Being Told Not to Outsource Originality to AI
By LOD Onyeji When the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Lagos Council, and the Federated Maritime Media Chapel convened senior journalists and maritime agency PROs at the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency in Apapa on October 7, 2026, the premise was not whether to use Artificial Intelligence. That debate is over. The premise was how not to disappear into it. In a newsroom era where 82% of journalists now use at least one AI tool, according to Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026, up from 77% a year earlier, and 67% of news leaders expect agentic AI to have a large impact on the industry, the three dons invited to Apapa delivered a unified, cautionary thesis: AI should be treated as a secondary source, not a primary brain. Prof. Helen Adekoya-Odunola of Babcock University, Dr. Ademola Irinyemi of Redeemer's University, Ede, and Dr. Jide Johnson of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism each argued that professional judgment must remain the author, not the editor, of the mach...
