Group Launches 'Bayani AI' to Empower Grassroots Governance



By Yusuf A Yusuf Damaturu



The Spotlight for Transparency and Accountability has officially launched "Bayani AI," an artificial intelligence platform designed to demystify government finances and empower citizens at the grassroots level.

Spotlight Executive Director, Mu'azu Alhaji Modu, announced the launch during the weekend in Damaturu, explaining that "Bayani," a Hausa word meaning "information," is an AI solution focused squarely on Nigeria's 774 local governments.

According to him, this initiative comes in the wake of the Supreme Court's July 2024 ruling granting full financial autonomy to local governments—a decision hampered by what Modu described as a systemic lack of capacity to manage these new resources.

He outlined the platform's mission; "We came up with an AI system that supports citizen journalists and reformers by giving them access to real-time information on budget allocations, projects, and the earnings of local governments.

He revealed the platform allows users to perform sophisticated data analysis through simple prompts. "Citizens can query cumulative earnings of a specific local government over five years, view allocations year-by-year, and access detailed breakdowns of budgets and projects.

"The system tailors its output, providing comprehensive, graphical, or tabular information based on user request," said Modu.

He noted that the platform also features robust data on Basic Healthcare Provision Fund allocations, detailing disbursements to primary healthcare centers across every local government area.

On his parts,the Spotlight's Head of Research and Operations,Aliyu Alassan Kutigi elaborated that Bayani AI is an open-source data platform providing access to allocations from the federal level down to the local government.

"The AI works around governance as a whole federal and state allocations, infrastructure development, all government spending and budgets," Kutigi explained.

He highlighted that the platform is expressly designed to help citizens utilize constitutional rights like the Freedom of Information Act, providing the tools to engage with government in a civil and ethical way.

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