About Us

Having recognised the principles of Antifragility, as described in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book Antifragile, in action every day in Nigeria, the 4 of us, Andrew Nevin, Rufai Oseni, Seyi Yerokun and Uma Kymal, agreed that we should write about Nigeria as an exemplar of Antifragility. We also agreed that we would source the stories to support the narrative from the Nigerian public. Hence the decision was made to write the first chapter setting out the framework of the book and identifying areas where we believe the examples and stories would come from to support the different chapters and then put it out to the Nigerian public. The main mode for gathering the stories was chosen as a website. The output would be a book on Self-organising nature of Nigeria and what policies can support this.

To be the platform to gather stories on self-organising in the different domains of Nigerian life in the first instance. To then create a buzz amongst the public when they see how what each one of them does has a huge impact for the good of the country and to prove how the people are eminently capable of managing and flourishing. Ultimately the objective is to advocate for policy change that will support the self-organising nature of Nigeria thereby using public money in the most efficient way. There is also the aspiration that people outside Nigeria start seeing Nigeria in a positive light. We do not intend to gather statistically verifiable evidence or data through the website.

Dr Andrew S. Nevin, PhD, is a public intellectual and nation builder in Nigeria, playing many key roles to advance Nigerian society. Andrew supports Nigerian youth, highlighting their achievements regularly on social media. He has been based in Lagos for over a decade. Overall, he has over 34 years of global experience in varied roles, including as an Economist, Strategy Consultant, line manager, entrepreneur, and private equity investor. In his professional career, he has previously lived in Asia, North America, and Europe.

Uma Kymal trained as a professional classical dancer and gave that up (!) to follow a more traditional career in banking advisory serving the whole range of players in the financial ecosystem globally, in Africa and in Nigeria for over 25 years while working with global firms such as PwC. She has diversified her interests over the last couple of years as a renewable energy entrepreneur and a Trustee with Five Cowries, an arts education NGO.

Rufai is a Journalist, crazy about history and how societies evolve. He is also a celebrated speaker and has spoken at top universities around the world. “My passion for the evolution of societies is my inspiration and passion for the self-organizing project.” Rufai has co-founded various companies around the world including Loyal Bonus – an e-commerce company – and sits on the board of several companies in Europe. Rufai was originally trained as an Animal physiologist with emphasis on the preservation of semen of farm animals.