We make the country we want, or at least we try to, and if the country is one set up to frustrate its young, as Nigeria is, the people who brave through and break out become symbols of an offshore future. Chude Jideonwo was rising as such a symbol around 15 years ago, when he became, at 26, the youngest person to interview a sitting president. Hitherto known for his curatorial work in culture, that flirtation with power led him into politics.
It is a well-known story in Nigeria, often litigated on social media, but now our cover story visits it with depth and puts it in context. It takes the reader from Chude’s co-founding vision with The Future Awards Africa and the influential run of YNaija through the euphoric ups and disastrous downs of his relationships with the Presidents Jonathan and Buhari administrations, to his present work in documentary filmmaking, in wellness as host of the popular podcast #WithChude, and as the author of the memoir How Depression Saved My Life.
Chude sits on the advisory board of Open Country Mag, but of course our relationship does not cloud this Profile by the capable Adesomola Adedayo. The story zooms in on a young person thrown into the deep end, wanting to make a positive difference, making a costly misjudgment in that process — his steering of the Buhari campaign communications in 2015, the results of which still haunts Nigeria and scarred him — and owning his conviction in a way that left him adrift.
It is also a portrait of a dreamer searching for the elusive, who in that enriching journey created some of the most important entities and bases of influence in culture, becoming the continent’s pre-eminent millennial curator. That he is seeable from more lenses than most is a testament to his mastery of public reinvention, a distinguishing ability to affect what we talk about from different standpoints.
This is Open Country Mag’s eleventh cover story (with thanks to our art director Emeka Ugwu who crafts the designs), and as with our previous ones — on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rita Dominic, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Maaza Mengiste, Teju Cole, Leila Aboulela, Damon Galgut, Chinelo Okparanta, and The Next Generation — as well as with every Profile we publish, we have identified a model in culture and contextualized them. At 40, Chude Jideonwo is the youngest to appear on our cover. In a country estimated by Worldometer to have up to 239 million people — almost 2.89% of the world population — and with a median age of 18, a story like this matters even more. ♦
Read our cover story: “Chude Jideonwo’s Stage of Nigerian Dreams.”
If you love what you just read, please consider making a PayPal donation to enable us to publish more like it.
Previous Cover Announcements
— Francis Cardinal Arinze Is on the August 2024 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Leila Aboulela Is on the December 2023 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Rita Dominic Is on the March 2023 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Chinelo Okparanta Is on the December 2022 Cover of Open Country Mag
— The Next Generation of African Literature Is on the April 2022 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Damon Galgut Is on the February 2022 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is on the September 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Teju Cole Is on the July 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Maaza Mengiste Is on the January 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag
— Tsitsi Dangarembga Is on the December 2020 Cover of Open Country Mag
