Our Speakers

Chika Oduah is a Nigerian-American journalist who has worked as a television news producer, correspondent, writer and photographer. She is currently a correspondent for VICE News. Known for her unique human-focused ethnographic reporting style with an anthropological approach, she was awarded a CNN Multichoice African Journalist Award in 2016. Upon the abduction of 276 schoolgirls by the terrorist group Boko Haram in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria, she was the first international journalist to visit and spend extensive time in the remote community of Chibok. Her thorough and exclusive coverage of the mass kidnapping won her the Trust Women "Journalist of The Year Award" from the Thomas Reuters Foundation in 2014. Chika's reporting explores culture, history, conflict, human rights, and development to capture the complexities, hopes and everyday realities of Africans and people of African descent.

Ezinne Edet is a creative writer and editor who helps writers find their voice and earn from their writing skills. She is the Creative Director of The Write Start, a brand that helps writers achieve their income goals by providing book writing consultations, ghostwriting, content writing, freelance writing, editing, proofreading, training, courses, and other writing services. She also runs an online writing community for newbie and struggling writers also known as The Write Start. Ezinne has trained over 1000 writers and intending writers in Canada, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Angola, U.S, and Cameroon on book writing, creative writing, and brand storytelling. She is also the author of three books, including her latest book Fishing for Words which proffers solutions to the common problems that writers face. She has been featured in national dailies in Zimbabwe, as well as magazines and blogs in Nigeria. She has also been invited to speak on various platforms, including radio media, TV media, and online media. In February 2021, Ezinne was selected as one of the mentors at the Female Entrepreneur Support Program (FESP) by TechQuest STEM Academy, Nigeria and Junub Open Space, South Sudan. She is also a keynote speaker, alongside other speakers from the UK, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, at the Writers’ International Virtual Meet Up, a non-governmental organisation that connects writers across the globe and provides solutions for writers in the form of teachings, workshops, seminars, and training. So far, she has received two awards: The Ladies of Honour Award, recognising her inspirational and selfless effort as a creative writer and content creator, and Brilliant Entrepreneurs and Writers Academy (BEWA) Africa Authors’ Awards, recognising her impact as an author. She also emerged one of the winners and featured authors of Lessons in Groundbreaking, a book project celebrating and featuring women across the world who forged their own path to success. When Ezinne is not writing or editing clients’ manuscripts, she is either working as a part-time Creative Writing instructor or hanging out with her family.

Nancy Legacy is a Writer, Editor, and Medical Radiographer. She is the author of Write Like A Boss, a practical guide to become a badass writer and make lots of money. As the Founder of Legacy Creatives, she loves helping busy professionals tell their stories and fulfil their dream of becoming authors. Her excellent content development and research skills are evident in her unique writing style. In the past three years, Nancy has worked with stellar brands in Nigeria and the diaspora to improve their online visibility by providing content for their digital marketing campaigns. She has managed the creative resources and book projects of several individuals and organizations. As a HubSpot certified Content Marketer, she worked with the Enugu State SME Agency during the pandemic to provide skill acquisition training to help small business owners develop skills to promote their brands through content marketing. Her work has been published on top-notch sites like Yolar

Nnamchi Harachi is a professional screenwriter and teacher, with special interest in children dealing with childhood trauma.

Dr Oliver Owen works at the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD). He is the NTRN Research Coordinator as well as co-investigator on the project Taxation, Property Rights and the Social Contract in Lagos. He is an ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow at Oxford Department for International Development (ODID) where he is currently working on a three-year study of new transformations in revenue and fiscal governance in Nigeria, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. At ODID he also continues work with a focus on policing structures and practices in Nigeria and work related to longstanding interests in politics and governance in the West African sub-region and in political anthropology. After working in London and Lagos, first with West African civil society groups, and then as an investment risk analyst Olly completed a DPhil at Oxford University’s Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, undertaking an ethnographic study of the Nigerian Police Force.

Mutiat Titilope Oladejo is a lecturer in the Department of History, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She is a fellow of American Council of Learned Societies and the author Ibadan Market Women and Politics, 1900-1995 (published by Lexington Books, USA, 2015) and The Women Went Radical: Petition Writing and Colonial State in Southwest Nigeria, 1900-1953 (published by Book Builders Edition Africa, Nigeria, 2019). She is a CODESRIA Meaning-Making Research Initiative grant recipient in the theme: Women Encountering Mob Justice: Manifestation of Security Challenges in Nigeria. She is a Co-Investigator in the GCRF/UKRI Funded Research on Shifting Notions of Fatherhood and Motherhood and Improved Well Being of Children in Africa, ARUA Centre of Excellence in Notions of Identity, School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University Uganda (collaborating from University of Ibadan). She is also a Postdoctoral fellow of Islamic Development Bank. She has served as research consultant in the Women’s Political and Economic Empowerment Project at the Centre for Democracy and Development, and also with the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, Abuja, (Nigeria). Recently, she consulted as a historian to account for the history of Nigerian health systems in the Lancet Nigeria Commission Project funded by the UCL’s Institute of Global Health. She has articles published in books and journals. Her co-edited books are: Social Protection in Africa: A Study of Paradigms and Contexts and What Should Women Want? Before and Beyond: Selected Essays to Commemorate WORDOC’s 30thAnniversary. Dr. Oladejo is a researcher that examines the cross-cutting themes in African history and gender studies. She completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Obafemi Awolowo University. Her project examined women entrepreneurs in the garment industry. She has attended international workshops and conferences in Ghana, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Cote de Ivoire, Uganda and Germany.

Tayo Agunbiade is a graduate of History from the University of Lagos and a graduate of Women Development Studies from the University of East London. She started her professional career as a reporter/ researcher for the African Guardian magazine and worked in the United Kingdom as a freelance journalist with West Africa Magazine. She has also written for Al Jazeera News Network and Premium Times. She currently works as Research Consultant at the National Assembly in Abuja. Tayo Agunbiade is the author of Emerging from the Margins: Women's Experiences in Colonial and Contemporary Nigerian History'.