I was born and raised in Nigeria, where I read books by writers like Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. They wrote stories unlike those by Enid Blyton or C.S. Lewis, whose books I also enjoyed. Achebe challenged me to learn more about Nigerian history and Igbo culture; Adichie allowed me to explore characters that talked like me; Emecheta exposed me to the pains of womanhood in Nigeria. These are the people that piqued my interest in writing. I, too, wanted to tell stories, both fiction and non-fiction. But it was renowned journalist, Christiane Amanpour, that set my eyes on journalism. So, I decided to study mass communications with a concentration in journalism at Claflin University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in May 2019.

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Currently, I segment produce for CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper -- pitching newsy stories, planning the editorial structure of my segments with senior producers and coordinating on-air hit times with reporters. As a production assistant, I also build on-set and on-screen graphics, cut and edit videos and call video and graphic elements in the control room during the live show. The Lead covers a wide range of topics from politics to tech to world and national news, so I have continued to hone my writing skills for broadcast audiences. A major career goal for me is covering international news with the aim of exploring the human condition around the world. Through reporting and journalistic discourse, I want to highlight the elements of different cultures - the people, their politics and the socioeconomic factors that affect them. And today, with the rise of artificial intelligence and the exponential pace of technological advancements, I am also very interested in how it all affects our societies and what lawmakers are doing to mitigate any negative side effects - think, the intersection of tech and politics.

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College started me off with politics. I worked with the student newspaper, The Panther, as a reporter and, eventually, as its editor. It was a tremendous opportunity for me to build my news reporting skills. I pitched and developed stories, conducted interviews and wrote articles that were also published in The Times and Democrat, a daily newspaper in Orangeburg, South Carolina. As editor for The Panther, I reviewed articles from my news team and oversaw news reporting, from pitching stories to publishing news articles. I also interned for HBCU Times, a magazine that focuses on historically Black colleges and universities in America. In these capacities, I learned to work efficiently when developing several stories. Before I graduated, The South Carolina Press Association awarded me the 2018 Collegiate Journalist of the Year. The Panther also received awards from SCPA for our 2018 U.S. midterm elections coverage and page one design for our coverage of the 50th commemoration of the Orangeburg Massacre.

 

After college, I worked as an intern with the Crime and Justice team at the CNN Washington, DC bureau, where I covered politics and court cases, including the first impeachment inquiry and trial against then-President Donald Trump and the trial of his former political advisor, Roger Stone. I continued working at the bureau as a news associate assisting with news production for live shows like New Day, Inside Politics, The Lead with Jake Tapper and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. I coordinated with on-air reporters for their live segments, helped with research and ran scripts and teleprompters for the shows.

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Journalism, to me, is a megaphone. Over time, it has been a tool for change, for illumination. It highlights societal concerns and informs the masses. This is something I would love to be an active part of, especially coming from a country where the people’s voice desperately needs to be heard. In today’s world where facts are lost in a tangle of misinformation and propaganda, I think it is important to always be accurate and truthful as a journalist. I’ve learned this throughout my career and I hope to keep it a priority moving forward.