INTERVIEW: People travelling abroad in droves due to lack of hope in Nigeria, says Ebenezar Wikina

Youths, they say, are the leaders of tomorrow. In Nigeria, however, there are several odds against young people which limit their potentials.

This inspired Ebenezar Wikina’s quest to change the narrative through Policy Shapers, the youth-led open source platform for policy ideas that address the world’s most pressing challenges.

From initiating the #ReformIELTS campaign — geared towards stopping foreign universities from asking Nigerian students and others from Anglophone nations in Africa for English proficiency test — and leading several conversations aimed at fostering good governance, Ebenezar is at the forefront of the struggle for a better society for young Nigerians.

In this interview with CRISPNG’s Genevieve Aningo, Ebenezar reflects on clocking 30 and his vision to ensure Nigerian youths recognise their roles in building a better country.

You recently clocked 30… how does it feel?

Old (lol). It seriously feels old and my birthdays are usually reminders that there is a need to work harder and do better because time is on the move whether you decide to move or not.

I’m also grateful to God for life and for everything he has brought me through so far. Grateful for my wife and our family, and even more grateful for what is to come in the future.

Tell us some of your achievements and memorable moments in your 20s

Well, this is a difficult question because it’s always hard for me to talk about myself. However, there are quite a number of memorable moments that stuck out for me in my 20s.

In November 2014 when I was 22, after years of watching TED videos on YouTube, me and my friends organized West Africa’s only TEDxYouth event in Port Harcourt I was able to secure the license from TED and somehow with help from our mentors we secured sponsorship last minute and put the event together. It was the first time I was organizing something outside of church and I learned a whole lot from the experience.

In June 2015, as a member of the Global Shapers community, I was invited to speak at the 25th Anniversary of the World Economic Forum on Africa which was held in Cape Town, South Africa. It was my first-ever time flying out of Nigeria and I got to meet other young changemakers from across Africa. We ended up writing a book together – all 80 of us – and I spoke on a panel alongside Uzodinma Iweala (who later introduced me to Dr Okonjo-Iweala) and Honourable Faith Muthambi, who was the Minister of Information & Communication in South Africa at the time.

In September 2016, I was invited to Geneva, Switzerland for a leadership boot camp organized by the World Economic Forum and as part of an interview series I had previously launched in 2013 called The Stroll Live I got a chance to interview the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Michael Moller at the historic UN building. It felt like such a surreal moment because prior to 2016, I had conducted interviews with several UN diplomats and experts using my Nokia Xpress music phone from Port Harcourt but this time I was actually streaming an interview live with the UNDG.

There are many other moments like when I was selected as a fellow of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) in 2017; Speaking at the Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit in Washington DC in 2018; Receiving a scholarship from Harvard to join the maiden Executive Public Narrative class in 2019; Successfully building the Policy Shapers website in 2020 even though I had no web design experience; and marrying the love of my life in 2021. In March 2022, I completed my certification program as a Biomimicry Practitioner via a $2,000 scholarship; it was indeed a dream come true. There are so many that I am grateful to God for.

One of the things you’re known for is inspiring the #ReformIELTS campaign, tell us how it all started and progress so far

So it goes way back to February 2020 just before COVID-19 struck. That year I applied for a Business program at Nexford University and after submitting all the required application documents in addition to my Harvard Kennedy School executive certificate, Journalism diploma certificate, and WAEC and NECO results paying the application fee, they got back in touch to still request for an English proficiency result. Let’s just say I replied to them in a less than polite way and when I took the conversation from email to Twitter. It went viral and after a month the University replied to say they have changed their policy.

When we started Policy Shapers in August 2022, we started to think about ways we can address this issue from a more systemic way and that’s how the #ReformIELTS campaign was born. So far up to 6 Universities in the US and Canada have announced IELTS exemptions for Nigerians and Anglo Africans, our petition on the issue has been signed by over 79,000 people, we’ve featured on over 300 media platforms with over 5,000,000 impressions on Twitter, and our campaign has been endorsed by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to mention a few.

We have also directly engaged the UK government and submitted 20 pages of evidence to validate Nigeria’s inclusion in the Majority English Speaking Country (MESC) list.

The campaign has also spread across the continent with active campaigning in Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya holding simultaneously. For so many years English-speaking Africans have been subjected to these English exams and I think that this is one issue with undertones of racism that our generation must address – not just for ourselves but also for posterity.

You’re the founder of Policy Shapers…can you tell us what it’s all about?

At Policy Shapers, we’re trying to make public policy cool for young people. According to the United Nations, 62% of Nigeria’s population is under 25 years of age and recent INEC data shows that 71% of the voting population is aged 18-35 years. Despite this overwhelming stats, young people remain disconnected from government and the everyday governance processes.

Through Policy Shapers we hope to inspire active civic engagement among young people through policy ideation, policy dialogue and policy advocacy.

#ReformIELTS is one of the ways we’re showing what is possible when young people come together, learn, and engage from an informed position. We also recently organized Naija Policy Hackathon bringing up to 200 young people together to learn from experts and develop policy solutions to critical socioeconomic challenges in Nigeria today. We’re currently putting together the report of the event, and we’ll continue to work with the community to refine their ideas and present the same to candidates as part of campaign activities.

We have continued to witness an increase in the number of people leaving Nigeria for abroad, particularly the youths. For many of them, leaving the country is the ticket to success, What can you say about the trend?

I think people no longer have hope in Nigeria, and all of this points to poor public leadership. There is no country on earth that is not currently facing one sort of challenge or the other, but what we’re lacking here is compassionate leadership that puts people at the center of policy.

Ensuring that decisions taken at the national and sub-national level takes into account the needs and future of the people. We do not have that, and so I don’t blame anybody who decides to leave.

You’re a vibrant youth with laudable achievements… From your experience so far about Nigeria, what do you think is lacking in the country?

We are lacking leadership and vision. Nigeria had a headstart on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the sense that we gained independence before them and even discovered oil before them, but with the same oil earning they have managed to build a paradise in the desert. Today you have people from all over the world hustling for visa to visit Dubai. What made the difference? Vision and leadership

What is the vision for Nigeria? We have a long-term plan recently launched in collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Nigeria 2050, but do we have the selfless leadership required to make the plan work?

Why do you think people are leaving the country in droves?

People no longer have hope in this country. Once people cannot guarantee what they will eat, or if their kids will be safe if they go to school, or if the price of palm oil will be the same as it was one day ago, then you cannot blame them for seeking better alternatives.

Have you at any point also considered relocating?

I have – so many times. My wife and I continue to consider it. It breaks my heart that the country I was born in might be too dangerous and hopeless to have my own kids. That I would have to go look for a visa to have kids in another country because I want them to have a better future and a more successful life. That really breaks my heart. You see our leaders with all their kids abroad, and jumping on a jet with taxpayers money to receive the best healthcare while our public hospitals here stink and decay. There’s just too much wickedness.

This is why I continue to do the work I do every day – with Policy Shapers and every other organization I am affiliated to. I just want to see if it’s possible to make this country work. Nigeria has to work because in the end we can’t even japa with everybody in our family. Your heart will always be home no matter where you go.

People must take the 2023 elections very seriously. Go out there and collect your PVC. It’s a life and death situation. We must ensure we vote for the right people at all levels of governance.

Can you share some secrets of your success with us, as a youth driven platform, our audience would love to know.

I believe that everyone has a unique path which is why I often stay away from giving generic advice, however, as one of my mentors and friend, Late Sir Ken Robinson, used to say, finding your element is the surest path to a fulfilling life. We all have talent and I believe that God put it in us to help us live well on this earth.

The 3 important Ds to remember – Discover it; I think our schools need to do better at helping people discover their natural abilities and helping them fan it to flame. Everyone has at least one unique area of gifting. Develop it; Sadly again, some talents are not catered for inside the four walls of our university system. We must ensure that we find ways to refine our natural gift to ensure that it is more useful to us and the world. Deploy it; this is an expression. Using it. Finding problems to solve with it. Ensuring that it is useful to people in their everyday lives.

I know it might sound cheesy like it was stolen from a page of a motivational book (Lol), but this is a principle that has worked for me in my own life.