SOTM NIGERIA

The State of the Map (SOTM) Nigeria 2022 was the first of its kind to be hosted in my country, Nigeria and it was hosted by the Unique Mappers Network Nigeria.

I can still remember the first meeting we held as the Local Organizing Committee (LOC). There were lots of things we mapped out to do, we created sub-committees, scheduled to hold such meetings every Saturday, and several other plans in order to ensure that the program would be a success.

It wasn’t easy planning such a conference and there were times when I thought to myself ‘what if the program doesn’t turn out okay?’. There was so much we had to do in such little time and it always felt like we hadn’t done enough. However, I’ll continue to be grateful for Victor N. Sunday (Our National Coordinator) and Uchechi Anaduaka (Our Gender Program Coordinator) who were relentless in ensuring that we were all up and doing and that everything that needed to be in place for the conference was coming together gradually.

On 2nd December 2022, the long awaited conference was finally upon us and I was amazed at how our meetings and consistent planning efforts had culminated into such a wonderful event. The attendance (onsite and online), the venue, the refreshments, the paper presentations, the trainings, all turned out great and I am super ecstatic that I was part of the building process of such a memorable conference.

I specially extend my gratitude to Pete Masters, unSummit World Tour Program and Dr. Ibrahim Cisse (Director Western and Northern Africa Hub) for their timely interventions throughout the conference and in sponsoring all the travel grantees (I was one of them).

I am very excited about all that I leant being part of the planning committee for the conference and during the conference. I am also super optimistic that SOTM Nigeria 2023 will be greater and make more impact.

Thank you

Chisom Okwuchi,

Unique Mappers Network, Nigeria