How Nigerian Engineer Joshua Ibitoye Built an AI Self-Healing Network Capable of Repairing

Salami Adeyinka

 Cyber Failures Without Human Intervention

In an age where cyberattacks can cripple banks, telecom systems, hospitals and even national infrastructure within minutes, one young Nigerian engineer is working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and network resilience to solve a problem that has troubled governments and corporations for decades how to make digital networks that can heal themselves after a cyber failure.

Joshua Ibitoye, a cybersecurity and artificial intelligence researcher, has developed an AI-driven self-healing network system that detects, diagnoses, and autonomously repairs cyber failures without the need for human intervention. His innovation was first introduced through his published research paper titled: “Self-Healing Networks Using AI-Driven Root Cause Analysis for Cyber Recovery” (2022), which has earned recognition in academic and professional technology circles.

Now, according to industry insiders, versions of his model are being studied and adapted by enterprise cloud environments across international markets. His work is already being discussed in Nigerian cybersecurity forums, technology think tanks, and digital infrastructure panels involving stakeholders from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and financial technology operators.

The Problem He Set Out to Solve

Nigeria has experienced a rise in sophisticated cyberattacks from financial phishing attacks targeting Access Bank and Zenith Bank customers to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on mobile networks like MTN and Globacom. Globally, cyberattacks cost economies over $6 trillion annually, and recovery can take hours or days, resulting in service downtime, data loss and reputational damage.

Traditional cybersecurity systems can detect threats, but they often rely on engineers to manually trace the root cause, isolate affected systems, restore backup configurations, and bring networks back online. This delay is costly in banking, healthcare, oil and gas, and public governance.

Joshua saw this gap and began developing a system that combines AI-based root cause analysis with automated network recovery similar to how the human body repairs damaged tissue. He explains:

“I wanted to build networks that don’t wait for engineers to wake up at 2 a.m. before responding to a cyber failure. Instead, they should sense damage, diagnose what broke, and repair themselves even while the attack is still happening.”

How the AI Self-Healing System Works

His architecture blends three core elements:

Real-time anomaly detection: Using machine learning algorithms trained on historical network data, the system can detect unusual traffic patterns or configuration changes that indicate cyber-attacks or system failures.

AI-driven root cause analysis: Unlike traditional monitoring tools, his system traces the source of disruption by analysing network dependencies, similar to how doctors trace symptoms to organs.

Automated recovery protocol: Once the cause is identified, the system initiates pre-coded AI recovery scripts that isolate insecure nodes, restore stable configurations, and reroute operations to unaffected servers.

Joshua describes it as “a digital immune system.”

“It doesn’t just block an attack. It understands where the network is bleeding, applies the right patch and keeps the whole system alive,” he says.

Growing Recognition in Academic and Technology Circles

His paper published in 2022 in the International Journal of Engineering Technology and Computer Research (IJETCR) was among the first African-led works to propose a fully autonomous cyber recovery model for enterprise networks. It attracted interest from AI researchers, cloud architects, and security analysts.

By mid-2022, excerpts from his research had been referenced in university discussions in Nigeria, the United States, India, and parts of Europe. Tech analysts began comparing his framework to emerging self-healing cloud strategies by companies like IBM and Google Cloud.

Dr. Aminu Yakasai, a cybersecurity lecturer at the University of Lagos, stated in a technology symposium:

“What Joshua has built is more than academic this is architecture that can save Nigerian banks from losing billions during cyber incidents. It has the potential to be deployed in government data centres, telecom base stations, and intelligent transport systems.”

A Nigerian Innovation with Global Potential

Though currently based between Nigeria and the United States for academic and consulting engagements, Joshua maintains strong links to Nigeria’s technology ecosystem.

He has delivered private consulting sessions to IT managers in Lagos and Abuja, helping them understand how AI-based resilience can support 24/7 operations in sectors like banking, fintech, and national identity data protection.

“Nigeria is moving rapidly into cloud infrastructures. But cloud without resilience is a ticking time bomb,” he remarked.

“I want to see a Nigeria where a cyberattack doesn’t shut down a bank branch, hospital system, or airport network for six hours.”

His work also aligns with the Federal Government’s National Digital Economy Policy (2020–2030), which emphasises cybersecurity, AI adoption, and digital infrastructure protection.

Challenges of Building Self-Healing Networks in Africa

While the concept seems futuristic, Joshua admits it wasn’t easy to develop or deploy.

“The hardest part was teaching AI not just to detect anomalies, but to understand cause and effect in complex networks. It took years of collecting logs, writing algorithms, breaking systems intentionally, and observing how they behaved under attack.”

He also faced skepticism.

“Many people told me complete automation was dangerous ‘What if the AI shuts down the wrong server?’ But the truth is, human error causes 70% of outages. AI doesn’t panic under pressure.”

Real-World Applications and Enterprise Interest

Although full-scale national deployment has not yet taken place, certain cloud infrastructure companies and enterprise IT service providers are running pilot studies based on his model.

His approach is currently being adapted for:

✔ Cloud backup and disaster recovery systems for fintech firms in Lagos

✔ Automated cybersecurity testing in hybrid cloud environments

✔ Healthcare data protection networks, particularly telemedicine and electronic patient records

✔ Telecom backbone protection for 5G rollout in Africa

Industry observers predict that if fully implemented, self-healing networks could reduce system downtime in Nigerian financial institutions by up to 40%.

Award and Recognition

Joshua received the Excellence in Innovation and Technology Award in Nigeria for his contributions to AI and cybersecurity. The award celebrated his ability to merge theoretical research with tangible engineering applications that could advance national digital resilience.

“Recognition from home means more than any global publication,” Joshua reflected.

“Nigeria gave me my first computer, my first network lab, and my first failure. So any solution I build should first protect Nigeria.”

Why His Work Matters to Nigeria

Nigeria experiences one of the highest cybercrime rates in Africa, with the Financial Institutions Training Centre reporting that banks lost over ₦5.2 billion to cyber fraud in 2021 alone. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recorded over 3.5 million cyberattacks during the 2022 general elections.

Joshua’s innovation directly targets this issue not by creating more defensive walls, but by engineering networks that recover faster than they can be destroyed.

“Cybersecurity is no longer just about defence it’s about resilience. How quickly can you bounce back? That’s where nations will win or lose.”

Looking Toward the Future 

Although Joshua has been receiving increasing interest from academic institutions abroad, he insists his long-term plan includes partnering with Nigerian universities and NITDA to build AI-driven cybersecurity innovation hubs.

He envisions a future where Nigerian data centres operate like living organisms with AI systems monitoring, healing and adapting without waiting for engineers.

“We don’t need to import every cybersecurity solution,” he says.

“Nigeria has the talent. We only need to believe that our systems can be not only secure but self-reliant.”

Conclusion

Joshua Ibitoye represents a generation of Nigerian engineers proving that global innovation can emerge from African soil. His AI self-healing network once a research idea is now a tested framework that could transform how nations, banks and telecom companies manage cyber failures.

From university labs in Ibadan and Missouri to data centres in Lagos and cloud platforms across continents, his work is expanding the boundaries of what is possible in cybersecurity. At a time when nations fear the cost of cyber warfare, Nigerians like Joshua are building technologies that do not just defend but recover, adapt, and endure.

And in a digital world where every second of downtime counts, that may be the difference between collapse and continuity.