Talk:Gbenga Sesan

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Unsourced awards moved from article

• 2001 ITU African Youth Fellowship award
• 2002 Journalists’ Frontier of Technology in Nigeria award
• 2002 JCI Ten Outstanding Great Ife Alumni (TOGA) award
• 2003 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Nigeria award
• 2004 NiPRO Excellence in Information Technology award
• 2005 Stockholm Challenge Champion honour
• 2006 The Future Best Use of Technology award
• 2006 OndoState Sunshine award
• 2006 International Telecommunications Union(ITU) YES Scholarship award
• 2007 The Future Youth Advocacy award
• 2007 Nigerian Youth Leadership award
• 2008 FGC Idoani Alumni award
• 2008 OAU Ife EEESS Distinguished Alumni award
• 2009 National Youth Merit award
• 2009 OAU Distinguished Alumni award
• 2010 Our Common Future Fellowship award
• 2010 Crans Montana Forum of New Leaders Fellowship award
• 2010 SantaClara University GSBI Fellowship
• 2011 Cordes Fellowship
• 2013 BusinessDay 40Under40 list

Request edit: proposed rewrite of article (COI disclosure)

Disclosure: I am Gbenga Sesan, the subject of this article, so I have a conflict of interest and am requesting changes here rather than editing the article directly, per WP:COI.

The current article is largely unchanged since the early 2010s and no longer reflects the sourced record. Specific problems:

1. The article does not mention that I founded and serve as executive director of Paradigm Initiative, the organisation for which I am chiefly covered in reliable sources.
2. It states I announced plans in 2016 to leave the CEO role by the end of 2017; this did not happen and current sources (e.g. the European Commission profile, December 2024, and UN News, August 2022) confirm I remain executive director.
3. It gives my Ashoka fellowship year as 2007; Ashoka's own fellow profile says elected 2008.
4. Developments from 2014–2026 that received significant independent coverage are missing: the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill (Techpoint Africa, IFEX, Vanguard), the ECOWAS Court ruling on Nigeria's Twitter ban in which Paradigm Initiative was an applicant (Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, Africanews), the 2024 NIMC data-breach lawsuit (The Punch), the UN IGF Leadership Panel appointment (UN News, Vanguard), the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (TechCabal, Media Rights Agenda), and the Londa report series (Global Voices, TechEconomy).

I am proposing a full replacement text, drafted to comply with WP:NPOV and cited almost entirely to independent, reliable sources (UN News, Al Jazeera, Vanguard, The Punch, Techpoint Africa, TechCabal, Rest of World, Africanews, Columbia University, Carnegie Endowment, ICTworks, Quartz, and institutional pages from Ashoka, the Schwab Foundation, Stanford and the European Commission). The proposed wikitext is below (collapsed for readability).

Proposed replacement wikitext

{{Short description|Nigerian digital rights advocate and social entrepreneur (born 1977)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Gbenga Sesan
| birth_name         = Oluwagbenga Olabisi Sesan
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1977|7|27|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Akure]], [[Ondo State]], Nigeria
| nationality        = Nigerian
| alma_mater         = [[Obafemi Awolowo University]]
| occupation         = Social entrepreneur, digital rights advocate
| known_for          = Founder and executive director of [[Paradigm Initiative]]
| spouse             = Temilade Sesan
| awards             = Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2014)
}}

'''Oluwagbenga Olabisi "Gbenga" Sesan''' (born 27 July 1977) is a Nigerian social entrepreneur and digital rights advocate. He is the founder and executive director of [[Paradigm Initiative]], a pan-African social enterprise working on digital inclusion and digital rights with offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe.<ref name="carnegie-ddn">{{cite web |title=Digital Democracy Network Members |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/projects/digital-democracy-network/digital-democracy-network-members |website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="newsghana">{{cite news |title=PIN celebrates 15 years of impacting lives of more than 5000 under-served African youth |url=https://www.newsghana.com.gh/pin-celebrates-15-years-of-impacting-lives-of-more-than-5000-under-served-african-youth/ |work=News Ghana |date=26 July 2022 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref> In 2022, [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|United Nations Secretary-General]] [[António Guterres]] appointed him to the inaugural Leadership Panel of the [[Internet Governance Forum]].<ref name="unnews">{{cite news |title=UN chief appoints inaugural Internet Governance Forum Leadership Panel |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1124832 |work=UN News |date=16 August 2022 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="vanguard-igf">{{cite news |title=UN chief appoints Nigerian Gbenga Sesan on Internet Governance Forum |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/08/un-chief-appoints-nigerian-gbenga-sesan-on-internet-governance-forum/ |work=[[Vanguard (Nigeria)|Vanguard]] |date=17 August 2022 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Sesan was born on 27 July 1977 in [[Akure]], in present-day [[Ondo State]], Nigeria.<ref name="ictworks">{{cite web |title=The Formative Years of Gbenga Sesan: Nigerian ICT Legend |url=https://www.ictworks.org/formative-years-gbenga-sesan-nigerian-ict-legend/ |website=ICTworks |date=21 September 2012 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref> He attended [[Federal Government College, Idoani]], where, as he has recounted in interviews, a teacher denied him access to the school's newly arrived computers, telling him they were not "for people like you" — an experience he has described as the motivation for his later work on digital inclusion.<ref name="ictworks" /><ref name="aljazeera-doc">{{cite web |title=Gbenga Sesan: Connecting a Million |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/program/my-nigeria/2015/9/7/gbenga-sesan-connecting-a-million |website=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |series=My Nigeria |date=7 September 2015 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="techpoint-ajegunle">{{cite news |last=Ekwealor |first=Victor |title=One child at a time, digital inclusion will save this Nigerian slum |url=https://techpoint.africa/2018/09/27/digital-inclusion-will-save-ajegunle/ |work=Techpoint Africa |date=27 September 2018 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

He studied electronic and electrical engineering at [[Obafemi Awolowo University]] in [[Ile-Ife]], and later completed executive education programmes at [[Lagos Business School]] and at institutions including the [[University of Oxford]], [[Harvard University]], [[Stanford University]] and [[Santa Clara University]].<ref name="ictworks" /><ref name="ec-profile">{{cite web |title='Gbenga Sesan |url=https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/miscellaneous/gbenga-sesan |website=Shaping Europe's digital future |publisher=[[European Commission]] |date=20 December 2024 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

== Early career ==
After winning a national web design competition, Sesan was named Nigeria's first Information Technology Youth Ambassador in 2001.<ref name="ictworks" /><ref name="aljazeera-doc" /> He subsequently led the Lagos Digital Village, a technology training centre run as a joint project of [[Junior Achievement]] of Nigeria, [[Microsoft]] and the [[Lagos State Government]], until 2007.<ref name="ictworks" /><ref name="ec-profile" /> He served as vice-chair of the African Technical Advisory Committee of the [[United Nations Economic Commission for Africa]] and was a member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT.<ref name="ncw-foc">{{cite news |title='Gbenga Sesan Appointed Member of Advisory Network at FOC |url=https://www.nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng/gbenga-sesan-appointed-member-of-advisory-network-at-foc/ |work=Nigeria Communications Week |date=9 March 2018 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="schwab">{{cite web |title=Gbenga Sesan |url=https://www.schwabfound.org/awardees/gbenga-sesan/ |website=Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

In Nigeria, he served on two presidential committees: the committee on the Harmonization of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Sectors (2006) and the committee that produced a Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision (2013).<ref name="stanford-ccsre">{{cite web |title=Gbenga Sesan |url=https://ccsre.stanford.edu/people/gbenga-sesan |website=Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="ec-profile" />

== Paradigm Initiative ==
Sesan founded Paradigm Initiative in 2007 as a social enterprise connecting underserved young Africans with digital opportunities.<ref name="businessday">{{cite news |last=Anudu |first=Odinaka |title=Gbenga Sesan: Entrepreneur delivers ICT to underserved |url=https://archive.businessday.ng/enterpreneur/article/gbenga-sesan-entrepreneur-delivers-ict-underserved/ |work=[[BusinessDay (Nigeria)|BusinessDay]] |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="techpoint-ajegunle" /> The organisation began its training work in [[Ajegunle]], a low-income neighbourhood of Lagos, where its LIFE programme combined life skills, ICT training, financial literacy and entrepreneurship education for young people aged 12 to 28, placing graduates in internships with companies including [[DHL]] and [[Standard Chartered]].<ref name="techpoint-ajegunle" /><ref name="ashoka">{{cite web |title=Gbenga Sesan |url=https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/fellow/gbenga-sesan |website=[[Ashoka (organization)|Ashoka]] |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

By its fifteenth anniversary in 2022, Paradigm Initiative reported having trained more than 5,000 underserved young people and had grown into a pan-African organisation with offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe.<ref name="newsghana" /> The organisation convenes the annual Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF), which began in 2013 as the Internet Freedom Forum in Abuja and has since been hosted in cities including Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, Lusaka and Abidjan, drawing participants from more than 60 countries.<ref name="techcabal-iff">{{cite news |last=Osamuyi |first=Osarumen |title=Here's everything that happened at the Internet Freedom Forum (#IFF2016) |url=https://techcabal.com/2016/03/23/heres-everything-that-happened-at-the-internet-freedom-forum-iff2016/ |work=[[TechCabal]] |date=23 March 2016 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="mra-drif">{{cite news |title=2026 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum Takes Place in Abidjan from April 14 to 16 |url=https://mediarightsagenda.org/2026-digital-rights-and-inclusion-forum-takes-place-in-abidjan-from-april-14-to-16/ |work=Media Rights Agenda |date=9 March 2026 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref> Paradigm Initiative also publishes ''Londa'' (from the [[Zulu language|Zulu]] word for "to defend"), an annual report on digital rights and inclusion across African countries.<ref name="techeconomy-londa">{{cite news |title=Paradigm Initiative launches Londa 2021 report on digital rights and inclusion |url=https://techeconomy.ng/2022/05/paradigm-initiative-launches-londa-2021-report-on-digital-rights-and-inclusion/ |work=TechEconomy |date=2022 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="globalvoices-londa">{{cite news |title=The signal we cannot ignore: What the Londa 2025 report reveals about Africa's digital rights |url=https://globalvoices.org/2026/06/05/the-signal-we-cannot-ignore-what-the-londa-2025-report-reveals-about-africas-digital-rights/ |work=[[Global Voices (NGO)|Global Voices]] |date=5 June 2026 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

== Digital rights advocacy ==
Sesan and Paradigm Initiative championed Nigeria's Digital Rights and Freedom Bill, first sent to the [[National Assembly (Nigeria)|National Assembly]] in 2016. The bill passed both chambers but President [[Muhammadu Buhari]] declined assent in March 2019; a revised version was later reintroduced, and in 2024 Paradigm Initiative signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria's [[National Human Rights Commission (Nigeria)|National Human Rights Commission]] to press for its passage.<ref name="techpoint-bill">{{cite news |last=Ekwealor |first=Victor |title=Nigerian president declines assent to the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill |url=https://techpoint.africa/2019/03/27/nigerian-president-declines-digital-rights-bill-assent/ |work=Techpoint Africa |date=27 March 2019 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="ifex">{{cite news |title=President Buhari's refusal to sign Digital Rights and Freedom Bill into law disheartening |url=https://ifex.org/president-buharis-refusal-to-sign-digital-rights-and-freedom-bill-into-law-disheartening/ |work=[[IFEX (organization)|IFEX]] |date=22 March 2019 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="vanguard-nhrc">{{cite news |title=NHRC, others urge FG to pass Digital Rights, Freedom Bill |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/nhrc-others-urge-fg-to-pass-digital-rights-freedom-bill/ |work=[[Vanguard (Nigeria)|Vanguard]] |date=April 2024 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

Following the [[2021 Twitter ban in Nigeria|Nigerian government's suspension of Twitter]] in June 2021, Paradigm Initiative was among the civil society organisations that challenged the ban before the [[ECOWAS Court of Justice|Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)]], which ruled in July 2022 that the seven-month ban was unlawful and violated the right to freedom of expression.<ref name="columbia-gfoe">{{cite web |title=SERAP v. Federal Republic of Nigeria |url=https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/serap-v-federal-republic-of-nigeria/ |website=Global Freedom of Expression |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="africanews">{{cite news |title=ECOWAS court declares Nigeria's Twitter ban unlawful |url=https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/14/ecowas-court-declares-nigerias-twitter-ban-unlawful/ |work=[[Africanews]] |date=14 July 2022 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref> Sesan was a prominent public critic of the ban and of the conditions attached to the platform's reinstatement.<ref name="aljazeera-twitter">{{cite news |last=Iyorah |first=Festus |title=Nigerian Twitter ban: How government restriction affects people |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/6/7/nigerian-twitter-ban-how-government-restriction-affects-people |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |date=7 June 2021 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="restofworld">{{cite news |last1=Idris |first1=Abubakar |last2=Guest |first2=Peter |title=How Twitter rolled over to get unblocked in Nigeria |url=https://restofworld.org/2022/how-twitter-rolled-over-to-get-unblocked-in-nigeria/ |work=[[Rest of World]] |date=13 January 2022 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

In 2024, Paradigm Initiative sued Nigeria's [[National Identity Management Commission]] in the Federal High Court over alleged data breaches that left citizens' identity data for sale online; Sesan said the organisation had purchased the personal data of senior government officials for a nominal fee to demonstrate the breach.<ref name="punch-nimc">{{cite news |title=Group sues NIMC over alleged data breaches |url=https://punchng.com/group-sues-nimc-over-alleged-data-breaches/ |work=[[The Punch]] |date=4 December 2024 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

== Appointments ==
Sesan was appointed to the Advisory Network of the [[Freedom Online Coalition]] in March 2018.<ref name="ncw-foc" /> He was a non-resident fellow of the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society between 2019 and 2021, where his fellowship work produced ''Ayeta'', a digital-security toolkit for African civil society; during the early [[COVID-19 pandemic]] he advised the [[World Health Organization]] on data privacy and advised the [[World Economic Forum]]'s Operationalising Trust project on data policy.<ref name="stanford-pacs">{{cite web |title=Gbenga Sesan |url=https://pacscenter.stanford.edu/person/gbenga-sesan/ |website=Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="ec-profile" />

In August 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Sesan to the inaugural ten-member Leadership Panel of the Internet Governance Forum, alongside members including [[Vint Cerf]] and [[Maria Ressa]].<ref name="unnews" /><ref name="vanguard-igf" /> He is also a member of the Scientific Panel on Global Standards for AI Auditing of the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) and of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Digital Democracy Network.<ref name="ipie">{{cite web |title=Gbenga Sesan |url=https://www.ipie.info/team/gbenga-sesan |website=International Panel on the Information Environment |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref><ref name="carnegie-ddn" />

== Recognition ==
Sesan was elected an [[Ashoka (organization)|Ashoka]] Fellow in 2008 and is an Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]] Leadership Fellow of the African Leadership Institute (2007).<ref name="ashoka" /><ref name="schwab" /> In 2012, CNN listed him among ten leading African tech voices on Twitter.<ref name="stanford-ccsre" /><ref name="cnn">{{cite web |title=African voices to follow on Twitter |url=https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/02/world/interactive.africa.tech/ |website=[[CNN]] |date=February 2012 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref> In 2014, the [[Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship]] named him a Social Entrepreneur of the Year, presented at the [[World Economic Forum on Africa]] in Abuja.<ref name="schwab" /><ref name="wef-press">{{cite press release |title=Africa's Social Entrepreneurs of the Year Honoured in Abuja by World Economic Forum |url=https://www.weforum.org/press/2014/05/africas-social-entrepreneurs-of-the-year-honoured-in-abuja-by-world-economic-forum/ |publisher=[[World Economic Forum]] |date=8 May 2014 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref> He was included in the Quartz Africa Innovators list in 2016.<ref name="quartz">{{cite news |title=Quartz Africa Innovators 2016 |url=https://qz.com/africa/724308/quartz-africa-innovators-2016 |work=[[Quartz (publication)|Quartz]] |date=2016 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

He was the subject of a 2015 episode of Al Jazeera English's documentary series ''My Nigeria'', and delivered a [[TED (conference)|TED]] talk, "Technology can't fix inequality — but training and opportunities could", at a TED Salon in December 2020.<ref name="aljazeera-doc" /><ref name="ted">{{cite web |title=Technology can't fix inequality — but training and opportunities could |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/gbenga_sesan_technology_can_t_fix_inequality_but_training_and_opportunities_could |website=[[TED (conference)|TED]] |date=December 2020 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

== Selected publications ==
* ''In My Own Words'' (autobiography, 2009)
* "A Case for the Disconnected", in ''Digital Democracy in a Divided Global Landscape'' (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2025)<ref name="carnegie-essay">{{cite web |title=Digital Democracy in a Divided Global Landscape |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/05/digital-democracy-in-a-divided-global-landscape |publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |date=28 May 2025 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>
* "Shrinking Civic Space, Digital Funding, and Legitimacy in a Post-Truth Era" (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2025)<ref name="carnegie-civic">{{cite web |title=Shrinking Civic Space, Digital Funding, and Legitimacy in a Post-Truth Era |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/07/shrinking-civic-space-digital-funding-and-legitimacy-in-a-post-truth-era |publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |date=17 July 2025 |access-date=20 July 2026}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Sesan is married to Temilade Sesan, a researcher on energy poverty and development.<ref name="ec-profile" />

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{official website|https://gbengasesan.com}}
* [https://paradigmhq.org Paradigm Initiative]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sesan, Gbenga}}
[[Category:1977 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Nigerian activists]]
[[Category:People from Akure]]
[[Category:Obafemi Awolowo University alumni]]
[[Category:Ashoka fellows]]
[[Category:Nigerian chief executives]]
[[Category:Internet activists]]
[[Category:Digital rights activists]]

Notes for the reviewing editor:

• I have deliberately omitted claims I could not verify in independent sources, including some fellowship listings and board memberships that appear only in self-published bios.
• Two facts rest on institutional bio pages rather than news coverage (the 2006/2013 presidential committee service, sourced to Stanford and the European Commission pages; and my role chairing a Standard Organisation of Nigeria technical committee, which I have left out entirely for lack of an independent source).
• My graduation year is given as 2002 in the current article; ICTworks (2012) suggests 2001. The proposed text avoids stating a year rather than choose between conflicting sources.
• I'm happy to answer questions or provide additional sources, and I will of course defer to editors' judgment on tone, weight and inclusion.

Thank you. Gbengasesan (talk) 09:49, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Reply 3-AUG-2026

  Clarification requested  

1. We need a verbatim description of all text that is to be removed. To be clear, we don't need the text that is being re-added to the article; when I say "we need a description of the text to be removed" what I mean is just the text that is being removed and not replaced with the proposed text. Otherwise, it's not immediately clear from your proposed text which text is to be removed. You may wish to use {{TextDiff}} to help you accomplish this.
2. When ready to proceed with the requested information, kindly change the {{Edit COI}} template's answer parameter to read from |ans=y to |ans=n. Thank you!

Regards,  Spintendo  22:09, 3 August 2026 (UTC)