At inaugural lecture, Prof Adeniyi calls for stronger digital governance amid technological shifts in migration
Professor Adeniyi stepped to the podium at his inaugural lecture with a message that feels urgent right now: the way people move across borders has changed, and the policies meant to manage that movement have not kept up.
His central argument is straightforward. Digital technologies have reshaped what migration actually looks like in practice. Migrants today do not simply leave and lose touch. Through social media platforms and other online channels, they stay actively connected to their home countries, maintaining relationships, sending information, and participating in communities across thousands of kilometres.
That shift, Adeniyi says, demands stronger digital governance. The frameworks that governments and institutions currently rely on were built for a different era, one where physical distance created a natural separation between a migrant and the place they left behind. That separation no longer exists in the same way, and the rules have not caught up.
The question his lecture leaves hanging is the one worth watching: who exactly will build those new governance structures, and will the countries migrants come from have a seat at that table?
Originally published by Premium Times.