Originally (and still) from Nigeria, I spent the first twenty years of my life in Nigeria before moving London to study. If my actions, not my words are anything to go by, one could easily conclude that I am avid lover of schooling as I did more than my fair share. I spent the first three years of university in medical school and then decided that the legal profession would be a much better option for me.
I spent another three years in law school in Nigeria before packing it in and going to the UK to do A levels, a law degree at the University of London (SOAS), a masters in law at New York University School of Law and bar membership in New York. It was then back to the UK, not physically for a Phd in international and corporate criminal law at SOAS, during the course of which the bulk of my thinking on regulation in general and corruption in particular were developed.
Professionally and physical location wise, my feet are somewhat itchy. Over the last ten years, I have lived and worked in seven cities (London, Geneva, New York, Washington DC, Abuja, Johannesburg and Tunis) on three continents (if you must ask, America, Europe and Africa) for six organizations including World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the UN, the Nigerian Government, Deloitte, and the African Development Bank.
At the WHO in Geneva and at the World Bank in Washington, I worked on developing anti corruption policies and investigating allegations of fraud in Bank funded projects. I then went on to serve as a Senior Counsel with the Independent Inquiry Committee (Volcker Committee) investigating allegations of fraud and corruption in the United Nations Oil for Food Programme. In Africa, prior to working with Deloitte in South Africa as a Manager in the Forensics and Dispute Services Practice, I served as Special Assistant (Counsel) to the Honorable Minister of Finance Nigeria, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and got the opportunity to participate in groundbreaking work with respect to anti-corruption in Nigeria.
Simeon Obidairo
