Ohimai Amaize is a journalist with a multi-sectoral background that spans anti-corruption, communications, political campaigns, advocacy and governance. He was pioneer Program Officer, Popular Culture at Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where he worked to mainstream anti-corruption education into pop culture. In 2009, he was appointed an ambassador for Microsoft in their campaign against cybercrime in Nigeria. In this role, one of the major highlights of his work was Maga No Need Pay – a song and music video that mobilized top Nigerian music artists and celebrities in the fight against internet fraud.
Amaize holds the record of Nigeria’s youngest presidential campaign manager. His book, Fighting Lions, documents his experience as a young political campaign strategist. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as a ministerial aide in four federal ministries; Youth Development, Sports, Defense, and Foreign Affairs. At the Sports ministry, he helped create and launch Rhythm N’ Play, a nationwide inter-ministerial campaign designed to attract an additional 2 million Nigerian schoolchildren into school sports. He was Coordinator of Ghana At Work, a multimedia campaign that documented infrastructural development in Ghana. He is the founder of SignalNg, an online newspaper and was producer and anchor of Kakaaki Social, a top-rated social media news program on Africa Independent Television that amplified the voices of millions of Nigerians speaking truth to power on topical issues including: corruption, social justice and human rights abuses. Prior to joining Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, he has worked as Social Media Manager at Rights CoLab and a consultant for the American Press Institute’s Media Insight Project.
He has received several awards, including Breakout TV Presenter of the Year and recognition as one of the Best 100 Young Nigerians at an event to mark Nigeria's 100th anniversary as a nation. He holds a B.A. in English and French from Nigeria’s premier University of Ibadan, a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a certificate in Corporate Communication from Cornell University. A fan of style and fitness, he is a model for his wife’s fashion brand, Tesslo.