Reintroducing 2020 A common Eastern Nigerian name, Onyemaechi — means, who knows tomorrow? In addition to denoting that humans have no way of knowing tomorrow, I like to think that it also suggests that we should embrace uncertainty and an indicator that future thinking wasn’t absent in the culture. …

Enthusiasm for digital transformation While attending the 2018 Open Data and Open Science conference in Botswana, I shared a random thought with a few folks I had a hallway chat with — “civil service in Nigeria should adopt remote work for most of the junior and lower management staff”. I feel like a lot…

An interviewer’s tale — The term ‘systems change’ gets thrown around a lot. Especially in doing development assistance geared towards governance. I hear it more often today than when I first joined the field of international development. …

My struggle with reading and writing For someone who spends most of my work time reading and writing, recently I have found it unsatisfactory and inadequate to continue to think and say that I struggle with reading and writing. The reality though is that I do in the common sense of what the statement means. I…

Are you designing for what you will never experience? “I just wanted to eat not treated in a special way”, those were the words a friend said to Ola and I after we spent over an hour trying to decide what and where she should eat. We genuinely wanted to…

In formal and informal settings, I have helped family, friends, clients and colleagues design what works. From testing choice of words that communicate intentions clearly to ways of addressing social challenges affecting unique communities. Instances where there is an existing version of “what works” has been harder to design for…

As far back as I have looked in politics and governance time, drama has been featured as upheaval, tumult, patronage, assassinations, coup, riot, outrage, recovery, policy, suspense, and tweetstorms. Like a well scripted TV show, a good guesstimate does not get rid of your viewing appetite. In different parts of…

For the first time in many days, I could hear myself again Through earthly elements, unharvested nor refined by humans I recognized it because the sound was still, steady and small It said things I considered worth capturing, words that beckoned like a firefly Seen drift the night, my steps trail not minding where my feet is placed Letting myself be guided by a flick, a speckle, a gleam that stills me as it perches