Ibijoke Maxwell Odedina is the host of the Jo Maxwell Show which focuses on the achievements of Nigerian and African women in the Diaspora. She also has a background in Accounting & Finance, and is an IT specialist. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde of Flair Magazine, she talks about the inspiration for her talk show, capturing the achievements of women in the diaspora, challenges and more.
What inspired you to start your talk show?
I saw a gap on the screen showcasing the achievements of black women. So, I felt that as a Nigerian I would like to bridge this gap and show that Nigerians in the UK are doing great. Unfortunately, we are not doing things together and collaborating to maximise the opportunities available. For the show, what we did was to bring men into it because of the feedback that we got. As long as we want to be feminists, we still need to carry the men along. It’s been received well and it has also opened my eyes to new areas and opportunities.
I would also like to say that I am more than a talk show host because I do other things to motivate and inspire other people. I am also the founder of PEP (Passionate Empowered Professional) Network. PEP is a network that brings together black career women living and working all over the UK and from around the world. It is first and foremost, a connective and inspiring network, as well as an avenue to sell your brand, receive advice or ideas and be inspired and motivated by like minded business/career women.
What we are doing here is to bring together like minded women to connect, do business, work together and add value to lives in different ways.
A lot of times, we talk about empowerment but a lot of us do not understand what empowerment means. We have people who have helped to find jobs and connections for each other here. Most of them haven’t seen themselves for about 10 years and they live in the United Kingdom. It is really refreshing and we leave all our worries and network. It’s been great.
The intention is that at some point, the network would be in different parts of the world. I am the founder and I have other women who are helping to push the vision.
The theme Press for Progress covers a lot and I believe that as women we should come together and learn to add value to the things that we do. The talk show is a screen for the black women in the Diaspora; we actually don’t have a lot of that. We often get featured once in a while. And even when we get featured, it is about the bad stuff. I am also doing some documentary about how people have gone from nothing to something great. The intention is to capture the full lifestyle of a woman from different angles.