Jake Okechukwu Effoduh Becomes a Queen Elizabeth Scholar
Nigerian On-Air-Personality and Human Rights lawyer, Jake Okechukwu Effoduh, has attained a major academic feat after becoming a Queen Elisabeth Scholar (QES). This is in addition to being an Advanced Scholars Fellow with the center for law, technology, and society at the University of Ottawa, Canada. QES program was instituted to honor the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the English throne.
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh acquired his first degree from the University of Abuja, his master’s degrees in law from the University of Oxford, UK, and York University, Canada. Jake Okechukwu is currently a Ph.D. student at the Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada, conducting research on the Legitimization of Artificial Intelligence in Africa.
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While at York University, Jake Okechukwu Effoduh served in the capacity of an assistant lecturer in the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies.
According to the QES program website:
“This program represents a unique opportunity to mobilize a dynamic community of young global leaders across Canada to create lasting impacts both at home and abroad through cross-cultural exchanges encompassing international education, discovery and inquiry, and professional experiences.”
As a Nigerian radio personality, human rights activist, and lawyer, Jake Okechukwu Effoduh anchored the community radio show “Flava” on BBC Media Action and hosted the “Talk Your Own: Make Naija Better” program, which has been broadcasted on over a hundred stations and has reached millions of listeners in Nigeria. He has been involved with several human rights organisations and projects.
Jake Okechukwu has been a human rights lawyer since 2011. He is a Partner at Praxis & Gnosis Law Firm in Nigeria. He founded Law2Go in 2018, a digital library of human rights laws and legal services for Nigeria. With a demonstrated history of advocacy across domestic and international systems, Jake Okechukwu has worked within the justice sector in Nigeria, the West African ECOWAS human rights system, the African Human Rights Commission, and the UN Human Rights Council.
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh anchored two nation-wide radio programmes in Nigeria for 12 years, which aired on over 150 stations and earned him several international awards including winning the Future Awards Africa for Community Action, and the prestigious African Broadcaster of the year Award in 2016.
Jake Okechukwu is a Climate Reality Leader and Mentor trained by Former US Vice President, Al Gore. He is also a Global Shaper from the Abuja Hub in Nigeria and serves on the Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee of the Global Shapers Community. He is listed as a World Economic Forum Expert on Human Rights and is currently on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Frontier Risks.
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh has held Fellowships at the Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, Mandela School of Governance (South Africa), and the Pan-African Lawyers Union (Tanzania). He served as an International Law Scholar with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (Canada,) a Distinguished Hubert Humphrey Alum (U.S. Department of State, 2016), and a Distinguished Dutch Visitors Alum (Netherlands, 2016).