Omoaholo Omoakhalen

Omoaholo Omoakhalen is a multidisciplinary governance, strategy, and policy expert with over a decade of experience advancing statecraft, institutional development, and social innovation in Africa.

Omoaholo has contributed extensively to high-level governance and policy initiatives. He previously served as Director of Research, Programmes, and Policy Development at the International Centre for Reconstruction and Development (ICRD), where he designed and directed interventions in local governance and public leadership capacity building. He also drove ICRD’s think tank operations, innovating policy frameworks and political strategies for engagements with state and non-state actors in Nigeria, Africa and across the globe.

He was a Technical Assistant to the Infrastructure Technical Working Group of Nigeria’s Medium-Term National Development Plan (2021–2025), contributing to inception, diagnostic, and development reports for one of Nigeria’s most ambitious national planning exercises. He also lent capacity to the Infrastructure Policy Commission of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) as well as the Political Economy Pillar of the 21st Nigerian Economic Summit (NES 21).

Omoaholo’s engagements also include founding Remake Africa Consulting and serving as its Principal Consultant, providing strategic insights useful for governments, private actors and social enterprises on geopolitics, global competitiveness, innovation, and state-market dynamics. His thought leadership includes the Imagine Nigeria 2050 project and frameworks such as the GREEN Intervention Model for resolving the farmer–herder crisis in Nigeria. He has also initiated concepts such as the Multi-Impact Corporation – a new global business model, and the Africa 21st Century Clock – a framework for repositioning Africa in the 21st century. He has collaborated with global leaders, including Harvard Kennedy School’s GETTING-Plurality Network, where he co-authored a governance framework for artificial intelligence, which was published in Springer’s AI & Ethics journal.

Omoaholo’s scholarly interests span geopolitics, state effectiveness, grand strategy, executive power, and institutional resilience in the age of exponential technologies. He has presented to international audiences, including as a panellist at the maiden edition of the Africa Conference of the School of Politics, Politics and Governance (SPPG), and at the Harvard Kennedy School’s GETTING-Plurality Network, where he spoke on The Evolution of Executive Powers in the Age of Exponential Technologies: Putinism, Trumpism and Xiism in the Resurgence of the African Dictator.

He holds a BSc in Cell Biology and Genetics and a Master of International Law and Diplomacy (MILD) from the University of Lagos, and is currently completing a Master of Research and Public Policy (MRPP) at the same university, in affiliation with the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR). He also holds diverse professional certifications in public leadership, public policy, governance, think-tank operations, Industry 4.0, global business, and innovation from institutions including Harvard Kennedy School, Nexford University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Tekedia Institute, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), and the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG).

An award-winning policy leader, Omoaholo is a Best Fellow of the Emerging Political Leaders Fellowship (2023), recipient of the NESG Award of Merit (2022), and winner of the Professor Pat Utomi Economics Essay Prize (2004). He is a member of global networks including FixPolitics Africa, the Harvard GETTING-Plurality Network, and the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Network affiliated with the School of International Futures. 

Omoaholo has appeared in national and international media as a governance analyst and strategist. For over a decade, he has worked closely with Dr Tunde Bakare towards the vision of a new Nigeria. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Citadel School of Government, founded by Dr Bakare.