Andile Masuku
Final week, Nigerian journey content material creator Alma Asinobi tried to break the Guinness World File for the quickest journey internationally’s seven continents. The present document of 64 hours is held by Johnny Cruz Buckingham of the US, set in February 2025.
Asinobi’s journey started on March twentieth from Antarctica, taking her by means of Chile, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Egypt, and Dubai. Her record-breaking ambitions had been finally dashed by the obstacles that include travelling whereas Nigerian – together with being denied boarding a flight to Perth, which delayed her arrival in Sydney. Whole journey time: 71 hours and 35 minutes.
Though she failed to interrupt Buckingham’s document, Asinobi’s journey has ignited contemporary conversations about passport inequality and journey restrictions confronted by residents of creating nations.
It is a actuality even Africa’s wealthiest individual, Aliko Dangote, has acknowledged. Throughout a 2023 Africa CEO Discussion board dialog with CNN’s Larry Madowo, Dangote revealed that regardless of his high-net-worth particular person (HNWI) standing, his Nigerian passport topics him to dozens of visa functions yearly – simply to maneuver across the continent, not to mention the remainder of the world. He identified that, HNWI privileges however, he enjoys significantly much less freedom of motion than an on a regular basis Western passport holder.
Meet Bankole Oluwafemi
I first encountered Bankole ‘Lord Banks’ Oluwafemi’s work again in 2013 when TechCabal was nonetheless discovering its ft as one of many first devoted African tech publications. Lengthy earlier than the present wave of ‘Africa rising’ tech narratives grew to become modern, he was documenting Nigeria’s nascent startup ecosystem from cramped co-working areas in Lagos, usually navigating by means of town’s infamous site visitors to chase tales with nothing however a notepad, curiosity and an unwavering perception that African tech deserved severe protection.
What struck me most throughout our latest chat was Oluwafemi’s reflection on how he constructed TechCabal by means of what he calls “simply figuring it out” – an strategy that embodied the very ethos of the startups he was masking. “We had been simply winging it, man,” he informed me with that attribute rueful snicker that punctuates his severe insights. “There was no blueprint for constructing a tech publication in Nigeria at the moment.”
Although his LinkedIn bio modestly describes him as a “full-stack artistic” who “helped create TechCabal and Zikoko,” the fact is extra consequential. Oluwafemi did not simply assist create these platforms – he based them and pioneered a brand new type of tech journalism in Africa that set the stage for a lot of the ecosystem protection we now take with no consideration.
Now engaged on Nigerianisms (2026), a e-book exploring Nigerian tradition by means of Afrobeats and Nollywood, Oluwafemi brings us his ideas on one thing deeply private: the idea of a “sovereignty stack” and what it means to navigate the world with a Nigerian passport.
Having spent years as a self-described “homeless” digital nomad between 2019 and 2023, Lord Banks continuously sought methods to “decide out” of constraining programs. Now primarily based in Manchester, UK, which he at present calls residence, he has thought deeply about international mobility and digital entry.
In Oluwafemi’s phrases:
Fringe of the matrix
There is a scene in The Matrix the place Morpheus tells Neo that the world he thinks he is aware of is an phantasm, a assemble designed to maintain him in place. That second resonates with me as a result of, for many individuals, the world actually does work that method – particularly should you had been born with the “flawed” passport.
For so long as I can bear in mind, I’ve wished to see the world. Rising up in Nigeria, my first window into the broader world wasn’t a passport, a aircraft ticket, or perhaps a map. It was books. Plenty of Enid Blyton. After which tv – cartoons on NTA 2 Channel 5.
However getting to observe TV wasn’t a given. First, there needed to be energy, which was by no means assured. Then, the TV station needed to be transmitting.
If each situations aligned, I would get my two-hour ticket out of Lagos, stepping by means of the CRT display screen into the worlds of Sesame Avenue, Magic Faculty Bus, and Enid Blyton’s The Well-known 5. By the point I lastly set foot within the US, my first ever journey overseas, on the ripe outdated age of 27, it felt like I had already been there.
But, there was a elementary distinction between me and the youngsters whose lives I had lived vicariously by means of these screens: for them, the world was open. For me, a Nigerian passport holder, it was not, as a result of someday within the Eighties, the Nigerian passport’s journey entry started to say no.
In The Matrix, some individuals may defy physics and stroll vertically up partitions. In actual life, worldwide borders are semi-permeable limitations that some individuals can stroll by means of, and others can not, primarily based on particular authorized attributes.
In the event you’ve ever tried to open a enterprise checking account and been blocked due to your nationality, or struggled to get a visa to attend an business convention that might change your profession, congratulations—you have found the sting of the matrix. Besides, in fact, the sting is completely different for everybody, relying on their sovereignty stack.
The sovereignty stack
A sovereignty stack is the set of attributes that determines whether or not an individual can work together with the bodily and digital world – what they will and can’t do, the place they will and can’t go. Citizenship is a important part, however there are different attributes like visas, residence permits, company automobiles, financial institution accounts, and twin citizenship that create fascinating second and third results.
I first encountered the sting years earlier than I boarded a aircraft, practically 15 years in the past once I tried to open a PayPal account to turn into a freelancer on the Envato market. Opening a PayPal account from Nigeria was not possible, and to even purchase a theme from Envato, I needed to pay a 3rd occasion in Nigeria who had entry to PayPal to make the transaction on my behalf.
After months of frustration, I deserted that enterprise. However I’ve by no means stopped occupied with what may have been if I may increase my capability to work together successfully with the worldwide financial system. That is the place the premise of upgrading one’s sovereignty stack begins.
World citizenship recreation
Consider it like a role-playing recreation. If you begin, your character has default stats: power, agility, intelligence. As you progress, you purchase stat boosts that make you extra highly effective.
In actual life, these “stat boosts” come within the type of second passports, enterprise residencies, worldwide financial institution accounts, international work buildings, {and professional} certifications that unlock entry to new alternatives.
Anybody from the “flawed” space code who aspires to construct a world enterprise or profession will ultimately encounter important pace bumps. In the event you’re an entrepreneur from a rustic with capital controls, how do you elevate cash from worldwide traders? In the event you’re a talented skilled, how do you make sure you’re incomes at a world fee, not an area low cost?
When individuals hit the sting of the matrix, the invisible ceiling outlined by their present sovereignty stats, they both determine it out intuitively, or they stop.
That is the essence of the e-book I am writing with my buddy, Adim. We’re articulating and distilling our ideas and experiences from our journey as international residents right into a coherent framework that anybody can entry and operationalise.
By optimising your sovereignty stack, you achieve entry to expanded prospects. You may enhance your international mobility, unlock monetary infrastructure, incorporate strategically, and place your self to work and receives a commission at international charges.
Optimising your sovereignty stack is not about abandoning your private home nation. It is about rising choices, entry, and leverage, no matter the place you select to settle.
The place we’re born is less than us, and our birthplace comes with default stats. However simply as you most likely would not attempt to full a recreation like Elden Ring together with your beginning character’s default skills, it is smart to pursue a deliberate technique for bettering your hand within the recreation of life.
In the event you’ve ever felt such as you’ve hit an invisible ceiling—in enterprise, mobility, or monetary entry—then that is the crimson capsule. You do not have to just accept the default stats and settings. You may reconfigure your construct. You may stage up.
That is what The Sovereignty Stack thesis is all about – articulating a blueprint for breaking previous the sting of the matrix and unlocking your full potential. It is a work and journey in progress. You may be a part of us at www.sovereigntystack.co
Andile Masuku is Co-founder and Government Producer at African Tech Roundup. Join and have interaction with Andile on X (@MasukuAndile) and by way of LinkedIn.
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