Unity, Humility, and Powerful Storytelling: Stanley Azuakola Discusses the Keys to Making Global Change


Stanley Azuakola is an international student currently earning his Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) degree at City College. He was recently selected to join the British Council’s Future Leaders Connect, a network of emerging social leaders from around the globe. Before coming to study in the US, Azuakola was politically engaged in his home country, creating new online platforms to improve civic dialogue and participation. In this interview, Azuakola discusses his path to the Colin Powell School, his activism, and his recent experience with the British Council in London.


Please tell me a little about your background and how it influenced your consciousness of social issues. 

I am from Nigeria. I am the second of four in my family. I was born in Port Harcourt in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region where most of the country’s oil exploration takes place. Yet, the region remains underdeveloped and bears the environmental consequences of oil extraction. In a particular community, a United Nations assessment found a few years ago that drinking water is contaminated with benzene that was more than 900 times above recommended levels. While residents suffer in sickness and poverty, the government and international oil companies make massive profits and look the other way. That tragedy was one of my earliest motivations for choosing a career in public service.

What brought you to City College and the Colin Powell School?

I considered several options when I decided to do an MPA in the United States. What came through for me in my research and conversations was that City College provided the most opportunities and tools for its students to make social impact, compared to the other places I considered. An MPA degree for me was more than just preparing for a career in public service. I wanted a place where I was confident of receiving the best support and training to be able to use evidence to make the greatest impact on Nigeria and in my world. I believe public policy has the power to change things, to change the world, but without the right framework or skillset, one would be bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. Of all my options, City College and the Colin Powell School looked like the most valuable for me - in terms of how it prepared its students, the quality of the faculty, the practical learning that takes place within and outside its walls, the cost of the program compared to the value it provides, as well as the diversity of the staff and student population.

What motivates you to dedicate your career to public service?

Nigeria has the highest number of extremely poor people in the world. Up to 90 million people in the country survive on less than $1.90 daily. These friends, family, and neighbors are unable to afford basic human needs like food, sanitation facilities, and shelter. Those are the people I care about. That is why I want to be in public service. I am interested in economic policy – especially on issues around poverty and inequality. Currently, I am doing research on those in the fringes of society in New York and Lagos (Nigeria). The two cities are similar. Heavily populated commercial cities with high levels of inequality. I focus on how the poor survive in those cities, and what sort of transformational solutions can be gleaned directly from poor people living in either society that would be useful for the other.

Tell me about your path and the work you did before coming to the Colin Powell School.

My undergraduate degree was in Electrical Engineering at the University of Benin in Nigeria, but I did not practice as an engineer. I worked for a few years after graduation in the media across print, broadcast, and online platforms. A few years ago, I founded and edited Nigeria’s first online newspaper dedicated solely to politics and policy. I worked briefly in government – first in a presidential council on the ease of doing business, and later as an adviser to the Minister of Trade and Investment. 

Last year I founded Civic Monitor just before Nigeria’s general elections. My team designed a voter-knowledge platform called Know-Your-Candidates (KYC). It was a web application which provided the positions of Nigeria’s presidential candidates concerning the top issues for voters before the elections. A voter could go on the site and choose an issue along with a candidate, and the platform presented the positions of that candidate compared to the others. Thanks to support from Facebook and other organizations, KYC reached millions of Nigerians before the elections and helped citizens compare candidates on the issues so that they could make informed choices on election day.

How would you say the Colin Powell School is helping you to get where you want to be?

One of the most important things I have learned, which I am already applying to the way I think about my work and policy problems, has been a framework on ‘transformation vs. reformation’. It is an important framework which has impacted the way I think about issues. Too often we fail to look at root causes in our attempts to solve societal problems. We choose the quick fixes and easy solutions, but they do not create lasting or inclusive change if we do not try to transform the conditions that led to the problem in the first place. Something else which has been such a huge benefit for me has been the diversity of the Colin Powell School and City College in general. I know this sounds intangible but trust me when I say that the different perspectives that I hear at City College consistently provide me with ideas and teachable moments. It is priceless.

Can you tell us more about the Future Leaders Connect event and how it helped prepare you for the future?

The Future Leaders Connect program is a network of emerging policy leaders from about 15 countries, including the United States. Once you are part of the network, you are part of it for life. The most beneficial aspect for me has been developing connections with other policy leaders doing amazing work in their various countries. It is inspiring to meet and learn so much from people doing what I consider to be important work in their countries, changing lives, and tackling big issues. 

The event for new members of the Future Leaders Connect network, which I attended last month, happens once a year in London. We met with the Speaker of the British House of Commons, lawmakers, heads of nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and international development organizations. We discussed some of the biggest policy challenges facing some of our countries and the world today. We also spent a few days at the Churchill College of the University of Cambridge, where we took part in an advanced policy and leadership program and refined and sharpened our policy action plans for the change we want to make. 

What advice would you offer students and alumni who want to make social change? 

I believe that we need good allies, more humility, and great narratives. We need humility because the crises we face are so massive that any victory achieved by anyone is almost certainly not going to be enough. We need humility to recognize our limitations, celebrate victories, but be raring to go again. Humility also helps us appreciate the hard work others are doing, without having airs about the superiority of our own work. We are all in this together. And that is why having and cultivating good allies is powerful. We cannot solve the issues our world faces in isolation. Climate change, the wave of migration, poverty, inequality, healthcare, and terrorism – all these issues will require allies joining hands. Allies could be classmates, colleagues or even countries.

Lastly, change makers must tell true stories. We have to identify stories, master and share them. Policies flow from the stories we tell. If your narrative is that the poor are lazy freeloaders, you would cut safety nets. If your narrative is that healthcare is a civil right, you would push for universal healthcare. It all begins with a story. Change agents, I believe, must master storytelling – their own stories and those of the communities they serve.   

Thank you, Stanley Azuakola, for sharing your perspective with us.  

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