I am the pioneer Executive Secretary of the Association of electric-power generation companies in Nigeria. In this role, I oversee the daily operations of the Secretariat's staff and provide requisite technical and advisory support to the 26 grid-connected power generation plant/stations powering the country.

My time at Warwick can best be described as “invaluable”. My learning was greatly aided by my supervisor’s unique approach to service delivery, which centred around excellence. The Institution’s prestige, the calibre of its lecturers and the diversity of its students are all admirable. Indeed, my PhD helped me prepare for the future by giving me the room I needed to research and write about issues that I am passionate about, as well as guided me through one of Nigeria’s ailing sectors - the power sector.

My doctoral research focused on the viability of applying alternative dispute resolution to address the age long crisis faced by the oil-rich Niger Delta region in South-South Nigeria. The growing intensity of resource-related conflict in the area and the ineffectiveness of conventional dispute resolution techniques to resolve it served as the impetus for this study. Given that without the combined effort of all parties, no method of dispute resolution can be effective, equitable and administratively practicable, and considering the region's peculiarity as a hub for investors, where both locals (indigenes) and outsiders (foreigners) interact and relate together in pursuit of a common goal), I proposed and designed a hybrid model that combines traditional indigenous process and westernized mediation process.

I joined the Presidential Task Force on Power before the end of my program and provided legal, regulatory, and transaction monitoring support to ensure the smooth privatization of the Nigerian power sector. This allowed me to use my knowledge effectively. I recommend Warwick Law School to anyone thinking about pursuing a career in Law.

I currently work as Staff Attorney for ABA ROLI Moldova office, and I am immensely grateful that I have the chance to transpose my knowledge and passion for law and development into practice.

ABA ROLI has had a presence in the country since 1994 supporting the capacity building of legal professionals, but also institutions, positioning itself amongst the most reliable partners for implementation of justice sector reform, cultivating strong relations with the Ministry of Justice, the General Prosecution Office, and the legal aid community. My program areas include institutional development for young legal associations, capacity building for young legal professionals and supporting local women business associations and civil society associations to better understand the value of women's economic empowerment in preventing gender-based violence.

The master course that I took back in 2012 at Warwick University was a challenging professional and personal experience. I got to learn so much from my colleagues, my professors, and my environment. It was a journey of knowledge and constant growth. The IDLHR course is about the practicalities of international law, about open discussions on international criminal courts’ cases, the regional human rights regimes and learning to write about “rights and wrongs”. The course is about constant discussions, questions, debates, arguments, and understanding how law, development and human rights influence each other. It is a course that goes beyond what we learn during bachelor studies in law school, and it makes you think deeply about humanity, its challenges and how we as lawyers can help.

In my current role I support the senior executive committees of the organisation, deliver parliamentary programmes both in Westminster and throughout the Commonwealth – primarily for the British Isles and Mediterranean Region, the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Network and the annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. Outside of work I am a keen writer and the Founder of Aya’s Garden, an online platform dedicated to storytelling and the celebration of marginalised groups and their experiences. I am also the Founder and Creative Director of LALI London, an upcoming conscious fashion brand. I am passionate about investing in the next generation and have been a Youth Leader for a local community group for the past seven years.

My masters was the pivotal moment when my concern for human rights opened the possibility of viable career pathways within law and international development. My LLM prepared me theoretically for the sector and gave me the crucial space to explore and write about issues that I was passionate about. I chose the LLM at Warwick because it had an amazing module selection which I hadn’t seen on other LLM courses. Warwick is continuously deemed an excellent academic institution, which it is. However, my journey and time at Warwick was not simply an academic one. Whilst I was able to grow and flourish as a law student I also got involved with the array of cultural and artistic societies and events that the university has on offer. These experiences gave me great memories and helped to shape me as a well-rounded young person who was ready for the world of work.

Watch Seyi's vlog below as she takes you along for the day in her role as Executive Officer at the Houses of Parliament, sharing words of wisdom on making her way through academia and her career...

I currently work as a Senior Adviser at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, part of the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. U4 is an institutional partnership of several bi-lateral donor agencies, including the UK FCDO, GiZ/BMZ, Danida, Sida, Norad, Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada and Swiss Development Cooperation dedicated to communicating evidence on countering corruption, one of the biggest threats to sustainable development, to international development actors. Through publications, online courses and workshops, I advise donor-agency policy makers and practitioners on mainstreaming anti-corruption in public service delivery and integrating gender in anti-corruption programmes.

The Warwick Masters in Law in Development (now IDLHR) provided the perfect launch-pad for my career as a law and development specialist. I acquired the knowledge and skills to be part of the extensive governance reforms of the early 2000s in Uganda, including law reform initiatives and building the capacity of justice sector personnel, local government officials and other civil servants to implement rights-based approaches in their work. In 2007 I was awarded a Commonwealth PhD scholarship, and I chose Warwick again because I loved the atmosphere and academic environment.

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The PhD was the basis for the work I am now doing as an anti-corruption adviser at the global level. For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic has cast the spotlight on how corruption weakens health systems and has undermined global and national Covid-19 response efforts. I am now U4 lead on a Norad-funded project through which we will work with the World Health Organisation, UNDP, the Global Fund and the World Bank to strengthen transparency, accountability and anti-corruption in health systems.

I spent nearly 5 years of my life at Warwick (1998-1999; 2007-2011), so I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s part of my DNA. The supportive environment and excellent PhD supervision by Prof. Paliwala helped me to finish my PhD on time even though I had two young children. The friendships and professional relationships I established at Warwick continue to enrich my life today.

While looking at various universities to apply to for my postgraduate studies, I thought Warwick had everything I wanted from a postgraduate experience; a unique and intellectually stimulating course, a beautiful campus, a renowned faculty and a fantastic reputation. Once I got to Warwick, I discovered what I had read and heard about was merely the tip of the iceberg; the Warwick experience far exceeded my expectations and choosing Warwick Law School for my postgraduate studies turned out to be one of the best decisions I made. Like with all good things, it ended far too quickly, but the one-year has provided me with a lifetime of amazing memories, friends and experiences.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the modules; they were all very carefully crafted and kept me engaged. This particular LLM course allows you to broaden your horizons like no other. You will be hard pressed to find an LLM with a module that amalgamates creative writing with human rights law and is conducted by famous authors and a renowned human rights practitioner. I feel the IDLHR course has enabled me to develop a holistic worldview and enhanced my understandings of issues related to development, human rights and law.

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This LLM allows you the freedom to always present an alternative viewpoint, you will be encouraged to think out of the box and question mainstream perspectives. Every class was an experience in itself; the modules on this programme are conducted by people passionate about their area of study and who have made significant contributions to their respective fields.

The campus provides the perfect backdrop to the intellectually enriching experience inside the classroom. There are hundreds of societies and sports clubs catering to a very diverse range of interests, I joined quite a few including the Photography Society, Bollywood Dance Society and the Cricket Club. I played cricket at some fantastic venues around England and made a lot of friends in the process. During term time, the campus is buzzing with activity, there is always something going on. However, when I felt like getting away from everything, far from the madding crowd, there were plenty of picturesque spots around campus that were completely secluded.

During the year I got very comfortable around Warwick, to the point where I started missing life on campus when I occasionally left for weekends. The Warwick campus can get quite addictive very quickly, and I still find myself missing Warwick, months after I have graduated.

Warwick gave me a holistic view of the world, opening many doors and leading to internships with the UNDP in Albania, and subsequently working as a Legal Expert for a think tank in Tirana, to now, where I am currently a Special Prosecutor and Legal Consultant at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan's apex anti-corruption organisation. My performance at NAB has led me to become the youngest member of the team that is currently prosecuting the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in the Islamabad High Court in the cases stemming from the aftermath of the Panama Papers scandal.

I chose the LLM at Warwick because I was seeking to use my knowledge in law to do something meaningful and help build a better world. My year at Warwick was one of the best years of my life. Two things made it special; inspiring teachers and my fellow-students. I was inspired by meeting lawyers from all over the world and to find that we had so much in common across our different cultures! I also appreciated the common law education system, which focusses less on repetition and reproduction, like the continental one, and more on developing ideas and arguing for them. It is what I always do today when I want to achieve anything.

My studies had nurtured my interest in the international field. My first job was in a Berlin law firm, where I specialised on immigration and asylum law. When the firm asked me to join them as a partner, this was my “now or never”-moment, deciding whether to settle or to search for an international career. It was a “now”. I temporarily left the legal field and went as a volunteer with Peace Brigades International (PBI) – an organisation which specialises in protective accompaniment – to Colombia, a country in armed conflict with high rates of violent persecution of social activists. Accompanying a threatened human rights defender 24 hours a day, you have a lot of time to observe. This is when you learn things about human rights, that you cannot see, when you are busy resolving problems and finishing tasks on time. What I learned was, that you don’t do human rights work to win the struggle, you do it knowing that it will take generations, with many setbacks and pains, and you can never win it alone. But you do it, because you want to.

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After four years with PBI, several of my former colleagues recommended I meet with a lawyer who was in the process of founding a new organisation, called ECCHR. We had a coffee and talked. The organisation had no money but a lot of ideas. What they needed was lawyers with hands-on experience in human rights – like me. So, I was in. Networking not only got me this job, but since then, it has been an essential part of my work. Initially I was timid and hated the idea of “networking”. Over time, I grew more open to the idea and found being in touch with interesting people rather helpful.

At ECCHR, I was involved in developing the critical legal training programme – and learned that as lawyers, we should recognise our privileges: law is an instrument of power and we need to use it smartly, and usually counter current, to make it work for human rights. Which we do, at the business and human rights programme at ECCHR. I helped file a criminal complaint against TÜV SÜD in Germany, who presumably contributed to the dam break of Brumadinho in January 2019 that killed 272 people and polluted a river. This year, we filed – together with Mexican organisation Prodesc – a legal action in France under the new French duty of vigilance law against the energy giant EDF in France for building windfarms in Oaxaca without respecting the consultation rights of indigenous communities.

Over the years, I have also worked as a researcher and consultant for the Colombian human rights lawyers collective CCAJAR, as a translator for a university, as a German teacher with young professionals, as a theatre pedagogue with refugees, and currently as a supervisor at Amsterdam University law clinic. I guess there are many ways that we can make sense of the world and contribute in our own way to making it a better place and I am curious to see what comes next. Curiosity is an energy source that can set free a lot of potential. And we all have it in us. Warwick encouraged me to explore this source and taught me to deconstruct my traditional - colonial - concepts of the world and of people, and to re-construct my understanding through and with my fellow students.