NIRA President, Akinsanya calls on media to lead ‘.ng’ Advocacy
The President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Adesola Akinsanya, has called for commitment from Nigerians to embrace Nigeria’s national identity through the adoption of the .ng domain.
Akinsanya made the call while speaking at the .ng Media Advocacy and Capacity Building Initiative held on April 16, 2026, at the NIRA Secretariat in Lagos.
The President of NIRA interrogated the architectural gaps in Nigeria’s current digital landscape and challenged media professionals to move past the role of mere observers and become active participants in shaping a narrative of intentional digital sovereignty.
Akinsanya highlighted a critical structural imbalance: while Nigeria is a major digital force on the continent, thousands of businesses continue to operate as “digital nomads,” building their wealth on rented soil.
”Imagine building a grand headquarters for a Nigerian media house… but deciding to place the building’s foundation on a plot of land in Virginia or California,” Akinsanya posited. “You pay your rent to a foreign landlord… and if their gates close, your building, no matter how beautiful, disappears”.
He affirmed that this is the current reality for Nigerian institutions relying on .com or .org domains rather than coming home to .ng.
According to him, the choice of a domain name is no longer a niche technical task; it is a strategic decision at the intersection of identity, security, and economic relevance.
Akinsanya identified three systemic risks introduced by operating outside the national framework:
Trust Deficit: Locally identifiable domains provide a level of assurance and authenticity that foreign domains often cannot match.
Economic Leakage: Value generated within the Nigerian digital ecosystem is not fully retained or reinvested locally when foreign domains are prioritized.
Security Vulnerabilities: Reliance on foreign infrastructure creates risks in jurisdiction, incident response, and national resilience.
He disclosed that to bridge the uncrossable chasms between technical complexity and public understanding, NIRA is prioritizing a coordinated national framework that aligns infrastructure, adoption, and narrative.
Akinsanya acknowledged that technology alone, such as DNS Security Extensions, cannot drive change without a shift in perception.
”The story of Nigeria’s internet is still being written.
“Whether it reflects external dependence or intentional digital sovereignty will depend, in part, on the narratives that gain prominence,” he emphasized.
Every headline and analysis, he noted, serve as a standard prerequisite for defining how Nigeria is perceived in the global digital theater.
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