Algorithmic Decision-Making, Administrative Law, and Due Process in Nigeria: Towards a Regulatory Framework

Government agencies and regulated entities in Nigeria are increasingly deploying algorithmic decision-making systems in areas including tax assessment, credit evaluation, social benefit allocation, and law enforcement risk scoring. These systems raise profound questions about due process, administrative law principles, and the right to a reasoned explanation that existing Nigerian administrative law frameworks were not designed to address. This doctoral research develops an original regulatory framework for algorithmic administrative decision-making in Nigeria, contributing foundational scholarship to a field at the frontier of administrative law, technology law, and constitutional rights. A multi-method legal research methodology is employed, combining doctrinal analysis of Nigerian administrative law principles, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 with empirical investigation of algorithmic decision-making deployments in three federal agencies. Comparative analysis examines regulatory frameworks from the European Union's AI Act, Canada's Directive on Automated Decision-Making, and Kenya's emerging AI governance instruments. Secondary sources include administrative law scholarship, AI ethics literature, and digital governance publications from 2020 to 2024. The research makes four original scholarly contributions: a systematic mapping of administrative law due process gaps in the Nigerian algorithmic context; an original Algorithmic Administrative Justice Framework for Nigeria; a proposed Automated Decision-Making (Transparency and Review) Act; and a constitutional rights analysis grounding algorithmic due process claims in the 1999 Constitution. Keywords: algorithmic decision-making, administrative law, due process, AI governance, Nigeria.