Panel 54 Podcast
Panel 54 is where Africa tells its own story. From Lagos to Lamu, Cape Town to Cairo, hosts Waweru Njoroge (Kenya) and Ndu Okoh (Kenya/Nigeria) explore the people, power, and politics shaping the continent. Each episode delivers sharp, evidence-first conversations with leaders, activists, athletes, and cultural voices. From sports and identity to security, media, new foreign influence, youth movements, sovereignty, and Africa’s place in a multipolar world, Panel 54 offers a global perspective through an African lens.
Episodes
What does peace look like when a teacher steps into conflict with books, dialogue and trust instead of guns?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Jummai Abdullahi, a teacher and university lecturer from Maiduguri, Nigeria to examine Borno’s non-kinetic security front.
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Who protects ordinary Nigerians when the state arrives late, local government has collapsed, and armed groups move faster than institutions?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Dr. Sani Abubakar Muhammad to examine Nigeria and the greater Sahel’s security crisis, the spread of insecurity across the Sahel and ...
What happens when years of work, family, legal status and contribution are still not enough to belong?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Itoro Victor Richard and Enos Mate to examine xenophobia in South Africa through the lives of African migrants who built homes, families and livelihoods there before being force...
What happens when beauty becomes exposure, and a personal choice becomes a public health crisis? In this episode of Panel 54, Amira Adawe joins the conversation to examine skin bleaching, colourism, toxic cosmetics and the hidden health risks behind Africa’s beauty industry. Adawe Adawe, MPH, is a Somali-born, American based public health researcher, policy advocate, and found...
What happens when exploitation becomes an economy, and abuse is protected by silence, poverty and weak institutions?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Lilian Muli, journalist and media personality; Queenter Mbori, AMWIK Executive Director and gender-media advocate; Njeri Migwi, survivor-protection and gender-just...
What happens when fear moves faster than facts, and rumours become a threat to global health?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Professor Heidi J. Larson, PhD, Founder and Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project and Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science at the London School of Hygiene & Trop...
What happens when water becomes a security issue and a border town becomes the gateway to the Horn of Africa?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Dr. H.E. Dr. Ali Maalim Mohamud, the Deputy Governor in County of Mandera, Kenya who also a distinguished environment and public health policy expert, to examine Mandera&...
What happens when insecurity becomes an economy and crime turns into a business model?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Dr. Capt. Lukman Gidado to examine Nigeria’s security crisis, the rise of violent criminal groups, and the systems that allow insecurity to survive.
What happens when insecurity becomes normalised and institutions struggle to keep pace with increasingly organised threats?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with David Meshioye, Nigerian journalist and editor, to examine Nigeria’s security challenges and the case for stronger cooperation between the United Stat...
What happens when terrorism, coups, organised crime, and geopolitical competition collide in one of the world's most volatile regions? In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Fidel Amakye Owusu, Ghanaian geopolitical and security analyst, to unpack the rapidly evolving security landscape across the Sahel and West Africa. From military coups and extremist violence to foreign security partnerships and regional ins...
What does it take to build peace when conflict is never far away?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Brigadier General Kapeh Alwali Kazir (Rtd), former Nigerian Army officer, peacekeeper, and security strategist, to discuss leadership, diplomacy, defence cooperation, and Africa’s evolving security challenges...
What does peace actually look like in a region shaped by conflict, fragile diplomacy, and shifting security alliances?
In this episode of Panel 54 Podcast, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Charles Tai Gituai to unpack the realities of diplomacy, defence cooperation with the USA and others, Kenyan military history, and the di...
What if culture is one of Africa’s most powerful geopolitical tools? In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge sits down with Jinna Mutune and Mkamzee Mwatela to explore storytelling, film, performance, and the growing global influence of African creative industries.
The discussion explores how film, television, and performance c...
What if the security crisis in West Africa isn’t what it seems? In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh sit down with Dr. Charles Omole, security expert and global adviser, to unpack the realities behind instability in the Sahel and Nigeria. From insurgency and banditry to governance failures and economic dependency, this conversation challenges the idea that conflicts in West Africa are isolated or purely ...
What if everything you think you know about Iran is incomplete?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh sit down with Nazanine Moshiri, British-Iranian journalist and conflict analyst, to break down a country often reduced to headlines but lived in complexity...
From the st...
What happens when young men leave home for opportunity and are turned into cannon fodder in a foreign war?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh sit down with a Kenyan father ,David Mutai, searching for his missing son, Felix Mutai, and a returnee, Peter Njenga, who survived warzone and combat, to examine a growing and...
What happens when Africa stops exporting culture and starts building the financial infrastructure to own it?
In this episode, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh sit down with George Gachara, a cultural investor and capital architect working at the intersection of culture, finance, and policy across Africa’s creative economy.
Drawing from more than a decade financing creative industries, Gachara explains why Africa is not short of cr...
What happens when climate change becomes a hidden driver of conflict and war across Africa?
In this episode, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh speak with Ferdinand Omondi, Communications and Story Manager for Anglophone Africa at Greenpeace Africa and an investigative journalist covering environmental and resource issues across the continent f...
What happens when Africa stops waiting for capital and starts negotiating over the resources the world needs most?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh sit down with Maureen Farrell, Vice President for Global Partnerships at Valar Frontiers , a U.S.-based strategy and risk firm working across Africa, and also a former...
What happens when elections become rituals and power refuses to leave the room?
In this episode of Panel 54, Waweru Njoroge and Ndu Okoh sit down with Prof. Nic Cheeseman, one of the world's leading scholars on African democracy, based at the University of Birmingham and the mind behind Democracy in Africa.
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