What I try to end up expressing is that being Nigerian is a state of mind. It doesn’t matter whether I had garri, milk and sugar in boarding school. It’s not about that. It’s about unity within the different ethnic groups and being able to help, love and understand each other.

I grew up with a very strong sense of pride in what it means to be Nigerian and what we can achieve as a people, which strongly contradicted the feedback I got from the world. For me, it is very important as Nigerians that we take time out to look for our personal heroes and learn about our heritage, who we actually are and what we have achieved as a people, instead of listening to the negative narrative the world gives us.

Although we're American, we're also Nigerian. We're actually Nigerian first. That's the one culture that we know, that we were raised to respect and understand. To show people that it's okay to be both and it's okay to represent where you're from is a powerful message that, hopefully, we've been able to translate.

In a democracy, we will have differences of opinion on how we approach the development question, but we are all Namibians, and the well-being of our country is of utmost importance to each one of us. This is a time that demands a collective mindset, a different way of doing things, and an understanding that Namibia and its citizens’ well-being has and will always be greater and more important than individuals. Fate calls on us to remove the walls of partisan thinking and assume the mantle of unity to ensure that we emerge from the rough waves we have faced and continue sailing towards the shores of peace, equity and prosperity. It is our collective duty to hold hands and reimage our Nation so that we can move forward as a Namibia ready to achieve her destiny; A Namibia defined by unity and shared national identity; A Namibia defined by peace and social harmony, and a Namibia defined by new economic opportunities and growth.