About Us

IQ4News is what we call an 'info-columnist' style magazine website dedicated to African related issues and voices.

IQ4News has a growing number of dedicated contributors submitting content on various topics and issues, and welcomes writers, video journalists, documentary film-makers and other members of the public to contribute articles to the website. We also welcome comments from everyone on all our articles and videos.

IQ4News also runs an internship programme click here to find out more.

Below are the 'bios' of the Editor and some writers of IQ4News. We look forward to including more 'bios' from future contributors.

Thank you for your interest in IQ4NEWS, happy reading!

Editor/Publisher

When I was a young girl, I wanted to be an actress; my father wanted me to be a doctor so I set out to be a lawyer. Today, I have a degree in Creative Arts, a Masters in Media Production, and I am now in the final year of PhD in Media & Communications.

Going back to my ‘acting’ years, I remember an autumn day at college when I was approached by a member of a film crew looking for extras. Not only did I jump at the chance, but during the shoot, I managed to talk my way into getting a (silent) scene with the leading actor.

As my love for the scene evolved, I took modules in theatre arts at university, only for me to do a 360 not only finding a new love in graphic design, but also joining with the internet world. From then on, it was all about HTML and flash.

What is fascinating is that I can never really pinpoint when my love for television, and news emerged. As a child growing up in a family that was business and politics orientated, CNN always replaced soaps and dramas. It was not however until I started my masters in media production that it truly manifested itself. From then on it was all about pitching this, filming that, and as I have always fancied myself as a bit of a writer amongst other things, it all finally came together: Television, multimedia and writing.

An internship with CNN International finally got me hooked. I started a blog, then my website and shooting and writing stories.

My journey in the past twenty something years has been anything but dull; from aspiring to be the next Whoopi Goldberg, to being Nigeria ’s first female president, I am now looking forward to a future in Journalism, because knowledge as they say is power.

Writers

Maria Birgen
Nairobi & Birmingham

Maria is a graduate from Birmingham City University with a MA in Media and Communications. She also holds a BA in Internatioal Relations and minor in psychology. She has extensive expereience in journalism as a writer in different capacities.
Passionate about African development she has knowledge on conflict management, democracy and development. Working closely with Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat who was her mentor on matters concerning peace and security.
It is in this capacity that she was been able to write various articles both published and unpublished. In addition to the above, she has had constant interactions with senior officers, related NGOs and eminent persons dealing with conflict issues in the region; she has been able to appreciate the role of mediators and the essence of communication to effectively carry out various tasks.

Keshinro Hafees
Lagos

Keshinro has a degree in Mass Communication but now works in human resources and administration. His love for writing is almost addictive, with his writing style that cuts across various spectrums, from TV to radio, and print.

Greatly influenced by literature such as "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, Keshinro has been a keen writer since as young as six, and presently works along side ace Nigerian director Tunji Bamishigbin on his situation comedy showing ' Kamsons and Neigbours', as contributing script writer. He has also previously written several movie scripts for film, especially in the Yoruba genre, and presently works mainly on developing story lines and hands off.

“I have written loads and loads of articles both political and others with soft landings in both local and international media. I have books - about six of them - written for a new genre I want to publish myself, at the right time.
I am a Lagosian and a Nigerian to the core, wherever I go I like to flaunt my Nigerian-ness in the best possible way I can”.

Nwakego Eyisi
New York

Nwakego is an economist by training. She loves writing. An advocate for 'free markets', her focus is to inform and enlighten people about economics and policy in Africa.

She has extensive experience doing research for multinational companies like Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb and WPP amongst others. She also worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria development finance department, which was charged with implementing the ‘small and medium scale industries investment in equity scheme’. A policy designed by the government and international organizations to boost the real sector of the Nigerian economy.

Her other achievements include writing short stories and co founding an analytics firm. She enjoys traveling, language, cinema and fashion in her free time

"Economics is all about demand and supply, everyone should try to understand the basics".

Eno Akpabio
Lagos

Eno is an Efik native from Nigeria. She is an English Education Graduate from the University of Lagos, who has a passion for writing anything that intrigues the mind and creates change.

For Eno, writing began at an early age, with the usual interest in poems and short stories created during classes and adorning the pages of exercise books. The inspiration to take this hobby further, came from the burning desire to be publicly expressive; and Chimamanda Adichie, who has shown that all experiences, when turned into words, make a difference.

Ade Fashade
London

Ade is currently the Equality and Diversity Manager at Shelter, the National Housing Advice and Campaigning Charity. He has almost 20 years working and volunteer experience in statutory and voluntary and community sector, having previously worked with organisations such as Metropolitan Police, the London Borough of Newham, and Bassac.

He is a Trustee of the Volunteer Centre in Chelmsford, Essex, a Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee in Chelmsford Borough Council and a co-founder/trustee for Development Impact for Nigeria UK (DIFN UK), a small ‘Diaspora-led’ international development NGO, which promotes social justice, volunteering and development amongst UK based Nigerians.

Ade has an MSc in Voluntary Sector Organisations (Civil Society) from the London School of Economics.

Yasmine Hachani
UK

Yasmine is originally from Algeria but is currently a journalism student in the UK. She has great interest in culture, arts and the media, and has been an active poet since the age of sixteen (I wish to get published one day).
She is an avid movie-goer with a passion for the opera and Yann tierson’s music. Her objective in life would be to do something for her people and help as much as she can in constructing a more equitable world.