Peju Ibekwe is the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling One Foundation. She and her team are working with various partners to tackle the root causes of poverty in Nigeria. Over the last few years, her daily routine has focused on finding ways to improve the quality of life of Nigerians in underserved communities and demographics. Furthermore, Ibekwe also elevates the voices of abused women through creative media.
A mission like hers requires a lot of flexibility given the wide range of issues affecting people across the country and the diversity of the people. To make a positive impact, she has tried different approaches because there’s no silver bullet for all our problems. On some days, she’s a corporate executive driving private-sector-led development initiatives, while on other days, she’s a filmmaker advocating for gender equality or just another change maker helping to reduce plastic waste pollution along Lagos’ shorelines.
In this interview, she speaks about her undying love for the arts, and how her career path has led to where she is.
What was your earliest career choice?
Like most Nigerian kids, I grew up wanting to be a lawyer, then an economist, and finally a broadcaster. Each of these choices was made during different periods of being influenced by my environment. I think the broadcaster choice stuck because the influence was quite direct coming from my dad, even before I developed some fondness for the profession.
Where did the fondness come from?
As a young girl, I enjoyed watching Eugenia Abu on NTA. At first, it was because people said we had some resemblance that we both had sleepy eyes, then I just grew fond of her, how she read the 9 pm news and her ability to share information in such an elegant manner. I didn’t want to be her kind of broadcaster though, just reading the news. Yes, I loved the elegance, but back in the 80s, my dad made a foray into acting while still serving in the army. He was the lead actor in one of the popular soap operas in Kaduna, ‘Case Files’, and he loved it. I just found it fascinating that he could live out two realities in one lifetime or so my young mind thought.
Today, you are in the non-profit sector, how did you then go from being a broadcaster to the development boardroom?
Most of what I have done has been a product of combining passion, skills or strengths and God’s guidance. As my fondness for broadcasting was growing, I had people around me who just kept telling me I had a good voice for the media and would do well at it. I knew that wasn’t all that was needed to succeed in the space, but it felt like the perfect design – I liked the space and had some talent for it, it just had to be God’s calling for me. Some days, I tell myself that if I didn’t get my Mass Communications degree and embrace this calling, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do the essential work I am doing today. I got the opportunity to work in the financial services industry while doing media, and that opened the doors for me to work in the non-profit sector, thanks to my boss, Abubakar Suleiman who saw what I did not see in me. So all I have done is go where I feel God can use me to make a meaningful impact.
You speak very glowingly about the arts, and from your recent work at the Foundation with the CHATROOM movie, it is clear that your love for the arts never left. What is it about arts and media?
Media is a very powerful tool. There are several mechanisms you can use to change how people think and how they act, media will always rank in the top 3 of such systems. Also, it is a strength for me, both by training and natural aptitude. As early as primary school, I was already keenly interested in cultural activities, participating in dance presentations and recitals. By secondary school, I was in charge of the few social activities we could organize at Command Secondary School back in the day and was the social prefect. It wasn’t until my NYSC days that I got the chance to discover what I was capable of when I produced the first comprehensive documentary on Kebbi State where I served. This earned me the state award at the end of my service year.
As a broadcaster, I produced and presented my TV show, which aired on cable and terrestrial TV and more documentaries. All through this journey, I could see the difference I was making with each story I told. So it was a no-brainer for me to seek out ways to leverage media for social impact and this birthed CHATROOM working with my hubby.
Why did you select gender-based violence and abuse as the themes for CHATROOM?
It was a combination of reasons. First, the statistics are very scary. 1 in 3 women are said to have experienced or be at risk of experiencing sexual abuse and 1 in 6 boys have also been abused or are at risk of being abused. The impact of abuse is negatively multidimensional with a significant cost to our economy beyond the trauma and psychological effects on the survivor. In 2020, during the peak of the pandemic, the statistics got even worse to the point that it was being called a shadow pandemic. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, it is an issue that greatly affects the social impact work we do trying to create more opportunities for women and girls. Both male and female survivors of gender-based violence face strong stigmatization within their communities and this affects them psychologically and greatly reduces how well they can contribute to society. The cultural biases leave them in a bad place. CHATROOM is more of a call to action than an entertainment masterpiece, which it also is. It seeks to get the relevant stakeholders, which we all are, into our various chatrooms to shed light on and discuss these very important yet neglected issues. It helps us all to break our silence, come out of the dark and rewrite these stories to be stories of hope, triumph and victory notwithstanding enabling norms and to help as many survivors as possible to regain lost dignity, thus the tagline, break the silence.
How successful have you been in fighting these biases and changing the narrative?
As you may know, CHATROOM was inspired by real-life events. We have succeeded in screening the movie in seven states of the nation to nearly 10,000 people, from secondary school students and their teachers to corporate executives of multinationals operating here in Nigeria. Each time we have done this screening, we have had someone in the audience walk up to us to say the movie has given them the strength to confront their past or helped them realise that what happened to them during their young years was abuse. Not only are we screening in different states, we are providing counselling for people who have been violated, on the spot and virtually with our partners.
We have also incorporated post-screening conversations that elaborate on GBV issues and provide more context to our viewers to help make them more aware of how they can help tackle GBV within their own spaces. The positive feedback we have gotten from these various approaches is a pointer that we are doing something right. One key milestone that has solidified that stance is the recent $20 million private-sector-led GBV fund launched by the UN Women with Sterling One Foundation as part of the steering committee. These are signs that the advocacy is paying off as the UN Women has always prioritized the fight against GBV in the past.
What’s next for you after CHATROOM; in terms of media and your social impact work?
Gender equality is just one area we focus on at the Sterling One Foundation. We have projects across health, food security, climate action, education and youth development. We have a portfolio of projects addressing different issues in these spaces, from out-of-school children to capacity building for health personnel working within primary healthcare centres. So, our work is quite extensive and we are only just scratching the surface. Our key focus now is on building partnerships that help us scale evidence-based ideas that are working and develop new ones that meet the challenges we are faced with innovatively and sustainably. Speaking about innovative ways, we are keen on leveraging the media, even more, to not tell transformational stories that move the needle on development.
How are you able to handle all of these and still be a present parent?
Again, the God factor has been very helpful. There have been things that I have achieved easier than I imagined they would be and I have God to thank for that. I also have a wonderful husband and support system to thank. Over the years, that system has grown in number and capacity, so I appreciate all those who take the load of trying to make the world better, and lighter.
What would you change about your life journey?
To be honest, nothing. I think I am where I need to be and at the right time too. I believe so much in God’s design. My childhood was spent moving to a new place each time my father got transferred. This helped me learn more about other cultures besides mine. If I didn’t have such a childhood, I might struggle today to relate and connect to the cultures of our various project partners and beneficiaries. I see the faces of people we work with light up when I speak the little bit of their native language I learnt from my time moving around. Life adds up in the end. Every experience shows its relevance when the time is right. That is my belief.