Obii Pax Harry Turns Attention to Mentoring Young Creatives

For several years, Apostle Obii Pax Harry has invested in a different kind of nation-building: developing people.

Through the Nehemiah Apostolic Centre mm, she has mentored leaders, convened conversations and driven initiatives designed to equip a generation with the ideas, values and capacity to shape society. Among these initiatives was the School of Government and Politics (SOGP), a leadership programme that attracted participants from different parts of Africa and provided a platform for engaging questions of governance, leadership and national transformation.

Now, Apostle Obii Pax Harry is bringing that same philosophy of mentorship into another powerful arena of influence: the creative industry.

Working with a team of accomplished professionals from across the creative, communications and business sectors, she is building the Nehemiah Project, a strategic mentoring initiative designed to prepare young Nigerian creatives not merely to succeed in the entertainment industry, but to become shapers of culture and custodians of a new African narrative.

The project targets creatives between the ages of 18 and 35, particularly those working across Nollywood and the wider entertainment ecosystem.

Its ambition is larger than talent development.

It is about people, purpose, professionalism and the stories through which a nation presents itself to the world.

From leadership to storytelling

The philosophy behind the Nehemiah Project is rooted in a conviction that nations are built not only through policies and institutions, but also through the stories they tell about themselves.

For decades, much of Africa’s representation in global media has been dominated by narratives of poverty, dysfunction, desperation and crisis. Nigeria, despite its extraordinary creative energy and cultural influence, has frequently found itself caught between two competing images: a country whose people continually produce remarkable achievements and a country repeatedly represented through the failures of its systems.

The Nehemiah Project believes that changing this reality requires more than correcting external perceptions.

It requires Africans, particularly young Africans, to become more deliberate about the stories they create and the values those stories communicate.

The turning point came at a gathering in Lagos on July 19, 2026, where more than 50 Nollywood actors, filmmakers, creatives and industry leaders met with Apostle Obii Pax Harry to discuss what the project describes as a deep narrative crisis confronting Nigeria and the continent.

The conversation produced a collective realisation that Nigerians must increasingly take responsibility for telling their own story.

But the conversation did not end there.

In the days that followed, young creatives across the industry responded with their own concerns. Many spoke of having talent but lacking the guidance, structure and professional support required to build sustainable careers. Others expressed a desire to use their craft to tell stories that carry the values, dignity and identity they believe Africa needs to project into the future.

That response became the starting point for the Nehemiah Project.

A team behind the vision

Apostle Obii Pax Harry is not pursuing the vision alone.

She has assembled a team of creative-industry players and professionals whose different experiences are being brought together around the project.

Among them is Eniola Akinbo-Niyola, the singer, songwriter and actress.

At a press conference held in Lagos to discuss the project, Akinbo-Niyola coordinated a team that included Maliz Mahop, Global Communications and Partnership Strategist; Shawn Faqua, actor and filmmaker; Eliora Ebere, Head of Business, Lifestyle and Entertainment at T2 Mobile; and Dare Omisore, radio producer and on-air personality (OAP).

The composition of the team reflects the multidisciplinary character of the initiative. Communications, film, business, music, broadcasting and entertainment are brought into the conversation because the project sees the development of young creatives as a challenge that cannot be solved by artistic training alone.

The question is not simply how to produce more talented creatives.

It is how to help talented young people build sustainable careers, understand the business around their craft, navigate the pressures of the industry and use their influence responsibly.

Building more than talent

The Nehemiah Project is therefore deliberately designed to go beyond talent discovery.

Its first major intervention is a 12-week mentorship journey that will pair emerging creatives with established mentors according to their areas of interest, professional aspirations, experience and developmental needs.

Technology-assisted matching will be used alongside human oversight to facilitate the process.

The aim is to move participants from raw talent towards becoming what the project describes as national assets—creatives equipped with technical mastery, professionalism, business understanding, ethical leadership, moral fortitude and a sense of purpose.

The project recognises that the creative industry can be an extraordinary pathway to economic opportunity while also exposing young people to intense competition, uncertainty, predatory practices and pressure to compromise.

That is why its focus extends beyond what the creative person can produce.

It is also concerned with who that person becomes.

Four pathways

The mentorship programme is structured around four broad areas.

Film and Broadcast Business will address film economics, distribution, legal frameworks and ethical negotiation, giving emerging creatives a deeper understanding of the commercial and professional structures behind their craft.

Audio and Sound Architecture will focus on sound design, music production, mixing and mastering.

Media Asset Creation and Digital Strategy will cover podcasting, thought leadership, digital narrative design and visual storytelling.

The fourth track, Mind-Mapping and Identity Restoration, will address resilience, mental wellbeing and values-based leadership.

Together, the tracks point to a philosophy that sees creative development as a whole-person enterprise.

Talent matters. But so do identity, resilience, business knowledge, professional discipline and values.

Reclaiming the African narrative

At the heart of the project are three pillars.

The first is Future-Forward Storytelling and Narrative Reclamation.

The intention is to expand the range of African stories being told—to move beyond narratives that repeatedly reduce the continent to poverty and darkness and create space for stories of innovation, excellence, honour, imagination and dignity.

The second is Creative Sector Systems Thinking and Next-Generation Technology.

The project seeks to establish an end-to-end professional pipeline for talent development, including the use of AI-assisted matching and predictive technologies alongside human oversight.

The third is Nationhood, Ethics and Marketplace Leadership.

This is where the project’s mentorship philosophy becomes particularly clear. The objective is to nurture the person behind the talent: young creatives who can operate in demanding global marketplaces while retaining a strong sense of ethics, identity and responsibility.

From Nigeria to Africa

The project’s longer-term ambition extends beyond the initial 12-week programme.

Its vision includes an academy and accommodation infrastructure where creatives from different parts of Nigeria and, eventually, across Africa, can live, learn and collaborate.

In that sense, the Nehemiah Project is being conceived not simply as a training programme but as the beginning of an ecosystem.

The project is inviting mentors, collaborators, investors, institutions, government agencies, creative-industry leaders and technology partners to participate in building that ecosystem.

Nigeria’s demographic and cultural position makes the ambition particularly significant.

As Africa’s population grows and the continent assumes an increasingly important place in the global cultural and economic landscape, Nigeria—with its youthful population and extraordinary cultural reach—is positioned to play a major role in shaping how Africa is experienced by the world.

The Nehemiah Project wants young Nigerian creatives to be ready for that moment.

The next generation of storytellers

There is a natural continuity between Apostle Obii Pax Harry’s earlier work and this new venture.

The School of Government and Politics was concerned with developing people who could engage questions of leadership and public life.

The Nehemiah Project turns that same attention towards those who influence culture.

The arena has changed.

The underlying question has not:

How do you prepare people to carry influence responsibly?

For Apostle Obii Pax Harry and the team around her, the answer begins with mentorship.

Identify potential. Create structure around it. Connect talent to experienced guides. Develop the person as well as the professional.

And give young creatives the confidence and competence to enter the marketplace without losing sight of who they are.

The Nehemiah Project is therefore not simply about producing more actors, filmmakers, musicians, podcasters or digital creators.

It is about asking what happens when a generation of African creatives understands that its work can do more than entertain.

It can preserve memory, shape identity, influence how a nation is understood and build soft power.

It can create economic opportunity.

And, ultimately, it can help a people tell their own story.

The invitation is consequently broader than an invitation to join a programme. It is a call to mentors, creatives, investors, institutions, technology partners and other stakeholders to participate in what the project sees as a generational undertaking.

The message at the heart of the initiative is simple: Arise and build.

And for Apostle Obii Pax Harry, the next chapter of nation-building may be found not only in the rooms where leaders are trained, but also in the studios, film sets, editing rooms, microphones and creative spaces where Africa’s next story is being written.