Jake Okechukwu Effoduh

Early life and education

Effoduh was born in Lagos on 12 December 1987. In 1992, his family moved to Abuja where he attended primary school. For secondary school, he attended Federal Government College in Minna, Niger. At University of Abuja, he studied civil law and was involved as a president of several student organizations including the student magazine, human rights club, Red Cross Society, and International Humanitarian Law Advocates. He got his Diploma of Law in 2006. He received his LL.B in public and international law in 2010, and became a founding partner of the school's "pro bono" office, which participated in several national and international law competitions, including one from Network of University Legal Aid Institution (NULAI). He went on to attend Nigerian Law School and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar Association in February 2012.

Radio

Effoduh was a fan of BBC Media Action (BBC World Service Trust); when he heard that they were auditioning for a male presenter for a new show called Flava, he tried out and was eventually selected from 62 candidates. He originally freelanced as a radio presenter for the programme in order to help finance his university education, but it had also increased his desires to help the community. From 2006 to 2013, he anchored Flava, a youth lifestyle and sexual reproductive health magazine programme where he addressed issues on HIV/AIDS among others. Effoduh has noted that Flava grew to broadcast on 103 radio stations in Nigeria, and is one of the most popular radio programmes in the West Africa region. It also gave him an opportunity to travel to all 36 states of Nigeria, as well as 214 local government areas. In November 2012, Effoduh was recognized as the Best Community Show Presenter at the 2012 Nigeria Radio Awards.

In January 2013, Effoduh began hosting a new programme, Talk Your Own: Make Naija Better (Talk Your Own Make Nigeria Better) a 30-minute show covering governance issues in Nigeria. It has aired on over a hundred stations, with the aim of a more inclusive and wider listener base. He also noted that BBC Media Action wanted to train radio presenters to produce and host more localized shows.

Legal work

For his National Youth Service Corps primary assignment Effoduh worked as a litigation counsel in the law firm of Afe Babalola San & Co. In 2013, he became a research assistant with the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Activism

In August 2011, Effoduh spent three weeks in the quarters of the sex worker community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria, where he researched the human rights abuses faced by that population. He presented "Legal Protection of Sex Workers: a need to achieving effective HIV/AIDS intervention in the sex worker population of Nigeria" as a poster exhibition at the XIX International AIDS Conference held in Washington, DC in July 2012. He also presented his information at the TEDxAbuja conference in October.

In June 2012, he was invited by the United States Department of State to be the Nigerian representative and one of 20 journalists from 20 countries for a global reporting tour. The objective was to give journalists firsthand experience on key LGBT and other human rights issues in America, and it included a tour of the offices of the US Foreign Press Center.> He has published a series of articles of his experience there.

Effoduh has been involved with the Sickle Cell Aid Foundation (SCAF), established in 2010 as a non-governmental organization (NGO) for the aid and support of indigent persons diagnosed with sickle cell anemia in Nigeria. SCAF has set up sickle cell clubs in many secondary schools; in 2011 they donated drugs to local hospitals in the FCT and campaigned for better educating the public on sickle cell anemia. In 2012, he introduced the Know Your Genotype campaign, which provides free genotype testing for one million Nigerians. He serves as the organization's vice-president. He was nominated for a Future Award for his Advocacy work in 2013.

Personal life

Effoduh's family is Catholic, but he has mentioned that his childhood friends were Muslims from the north, so he enjoyed the food and culture there. Effoduh currently lives in Abuja, Nigeria. In a September 2012 interview where he is asked his relationship status, he replied, "I am in a relationship and I don’t think it is distracting. It actually lowers my gaze and keeps me responsible." In a January 2014 interview, he mentioned he was single and does not have a ring on his finger.