Two TEDx talks. A UNGA 79 side event at Pratt Institute, New York. Convenings across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and the United States.
Leadership Expert. Executive Coach. Author and Speaker. Ecosystem Builder. Policy Advisor. Nation Builder. I speak from the inside of the work — not from the outside looking in. Every talk I give draws on nearly two decades of building leadership programmes, advising governments, drafting policy, and sitting with young people in rooms across four continents.
The thinking is original. The examples are real. What I try to do on a stage is the same thing I try to do in every cycle of Matadors: leave the room slightly more capable of honest action than it was when I walked in.
[ Photo 2 — speaker, microphone, conference room ]
Why most leadership programmes produce the wrong thing. The single most consequential design choice any institution working with young people can make is whether it is building participants or leaders.
Best for: Funders, institutions, educatorsWhy Africa keeps building programmes instead of pipelines. The policy case for infrastructure-thinking in youth development.
Best for: Government, development partners, policy audiencesWhat it means to own the society you live in. Every person has both the right and the responsibility to engage with civic life — not as a favour to leaders, but as the exercise of their own agency.
Best for: Civil society, government, educational institutions, youth conferencesThe policy case for structured civic service. Drawing on the work of drafting Nigeria’s National Volunteer Service Agency Bill.
Best for: Policy makers, legislators, civil societyThe Atunko Idari story. You cannot teach leadership in isolation from identity. And you cannot fully claim your identity in a borrowed language.
Best for: Cultural institutions, educators, diaspora audiencesA framework for self-leadership in young people. The most dangerous leadership myth in Africa is that leadership begins with a position.
Best for: Student audiences, youth conferences, corporate emerging leadersThe most urgent investment in Africa’s future is not in training more leaders but in building the civic, institutional, and policy architecture that gives those leaders somewhere to land.
Best for: International development conferences, policy forums, diaspora conveningsAvailable for keynotes, panel contributions, fireside conversations, and workshop facilitation. I respond to all speaking enquiries within 5 working days.