Today on A Politics Diary, we feature in our “Guest Diaries Session” Where we have young voices from all around the world, an outstanding thought leader in the communications sector. She is changing things and making a social impact across the nation of Nigeria. She speaks of her experiences and about the involvement of youths in the global political systems.
We had fun, and learnt a lot from her perspective while we were at it, for a juicy dive into her intellectual mind, keep reading! 🔥
Feel free to add to her opinions, agree or disagree with them in the comments section, but we believe she is a voice that needs to be heard! 👏🏿👏🏿
We had questions, she had answers and the conversation began began!
Can you tell us a bit about your journey — how did you get into your field, and what keeps you motivated?
One of the things I'd like to point out is that I'm in fact still on a journey.
Hi, my name is Boma, I'm from Bayelsa state, and I grew up in one of the smallest towns of what is one of the smallest states in my country Nigeria.
I grew up in my hometown, where we haven't had access to electricity for about 10 years— I'm adding this because it's one of the things that shaped my curious mind as a child growing up. We had a library that had access to the solar system so there was light. I would sit there for hours on end reading fiction books and this did a lot for my imagination. It struck my quest for knowledge and education, growing up with so many voices and a severe lack of structure. Even my secondary school education had no structure because I ended up doing both science and arts. My teachers told me I would excel in both science and art classes, my father wanted me to be a lawyer and my mother assumed that the only path to success was the one that led to being a medical doctor. And so my WAEC results had both courses and I was successful, although this did little in the journey that I had ahead
I lived in a box, distracted for a long time as I grew up, but eventually I had to see the real world and survive in it.
I had big dreams of becoming the first female president of Nigeria, I remember this vividly, but the reality that I had to survive, kept my dreams at bay until my university days when I could somehow dream of chasing them again. I made plans to leave Bayelsa and relocate to Abuja, because I mean, I like the best things, God made this happen for me and I even got a tech job after my National Youth Service in a tech startup and this began my journey to significance.
Currently, I intersect between communications, and social impact, not the kind you might think of at first light— we deal with energy companies and this I think is fueled by the fact that I lived in a community such as mine where there was no light for 10 years!! Why?
I'm going to a place where I don’t just dream dreams, I make them a reality and even scale them into the larger communities that make an impact on the world one step at a time.
Do you feel young people have enough space or representation in global decision-making tables?
I don't think we have enough space, but I believe that we have made significant and active progress over the last 5 years.
The participation of young people has so far become rampant, with a lot more of us “going global” and representing our local communities in credible ways. I've been privileged to see some of them and what they're doing in places like the World Bank, UN, and other active organizations. People like Kennedy Ekezie, The Global Temi, Tunde Onakoya, and a lot of other people who are going into these global spaces, making the noise for us with lower voices who are not heard just yet.
I don't think we have enough and I think we have a large number to be filled, soon the current people in power will have to hand over to the next generation, although I do think that there's a pattern going on where a handover of power is apparent, kind of like the monarchy system(where a king hands over power to his son) and this frightens me because it shouldn't be so. Power should be of the people right?
Back to the focus, our world is moving fast and there’s a multiplication of industries so to speak, and even a refining of the problems we have. From electricity we've moved to figuring out the intricacies of renewable energy and it is the same with so many other industries.
Global issues are now being broken down and are creating gigantic spaces to be filled in the global political arena.
Many youth feel politics is “too far away” or doesn’t affect them directly. How do you connect your work to global issues?
Many youths feel politics is too far away but it's not so, we see it in our churches, small unions, and communities. When it comes to governance, we more often than not see it look far-fetched because of the small number of people controlling the ecosystem, making it look and feel like a hard space to get into.
Until there are policies that allow for integration, we won't really get to be a part of the things that matter. Just because we see people making waves on social media we feel like something is really happening or because of the digital world we live in, we think change comes.
From getting blown up on Twitter or Instagram, to the views and comments, sure we actually see impact and immediate response but it's often short-term and the change isn't deep enough to cause an actual shift. We must realize that it is not all there is, because if the people responsible for changing the policies and constitutions do not do any real work THERE IS NO CHANGE. Yes, social media is a tool and has caused change, but we must come to a place where the hands that need to write and rewrite things are working.
We must have a clear vision of where we want to go, and if we don't know where we are going, how do we get there? If we then know where we are going maybe we as youths can now know the things we need to do, what we need to become so we can drive the force of the future.
As a communications expert who constantly interacts with clients, some of whom are government organizations and private organizations trying to solve global issues, I communicate their dreams by understanding them and reiterating them to the public. For every small or large issue to be solved, you need to communicate through the process. We connect communications, by bridging the gap, breaking ambiguous information into comprehensible conversations that can foster forward movements across the world.
If you could change one thing in global politics to make the world better for young people, what would it be?
FREE ACCESS, That's it. To be honest, I'm not sure how I'm going to explain this but I'll give it a try: when we have the organizations that tend to the global issues affecting each and every one of us across the world, its as if these roles are reserved to a specific group of persons and while that is good, I feel like this same openings should be available, whereby everyone can have access to information they need.
Where there is room for transparency, and public opinion. Where we make use of the advantages we have like the creative industry to disseminate the information that needs to be out there so everyone can be a participant, by understanding and participating in these processes. We can create infrastructures to pull in the youth and integrate them into the systems.
Another thing I can think of is a situation where when we want to solve global problems, we solve them as A WHOLE. Where nations are given action points to get done as parts and we come together to form the whole of the several global issues that stand as puzzles in our time. So Denmark, Nigeria, Austria, Djibouti, Finland, and numerous countries all have a path of play in the stability of global issues, and whenever there's a meeting it should be to discuss between the countries how and why they couldn't come through for their parts, or how they successfully pulled through.
I propose penalties for the slackers too!
If you were writing a diary entry to your future self about today’s global political climate, what would you say?
Mmmhm. I'll say—
Dear Boma,
Everything is all connected, the reason my community doesn't have electricity even if we're exposed to several renewable energy sources is because there are no systems around understanding the new that has come our way, we still cling to the non-renewable energy sources like oil and gas, or Crude (because the first place where oil was found is around my local government in Bayelsa).
The things we see happen are because there are no measures, or systems put in place to address the issues that arise. Are you checking for systems? Or are you trying to fulfill a self-righteous cause?
Yes gender equality, yes education schemes, and no poverty but what are the systems and success metrics that have been grounded to ensure the realization of these agendas and to ensure that at every level there is the exposure of these things.
I will tell myself to get more information, know more, get more knowledge, and speak up as much as I can. Wherever you are and there's a discussion on the things that matter to you, politics and all— SPEAK UP!
We hope you had an awesome time reading and learning as much as we did. If you'd like to get featured to tell your own story, send us an email or DM and we will take it from there!
Until next time. ✍️🏾
With curiosity,
APoliticsDiary.