Tsema is a lawyer with experience in human rights, governance, and gender. She is a policy expert who has worked with the government, business corporations and non-governmental organisations on implementing people-centred policies to protect citizens’ rights. Before going into development, she founded a law firm where she worked as a litigation lawyer doing pro bono work helping low-income individuals gain access to justice.

Tsema has experience in working actively at strengthening activists at the grassroots to document and expose human rights abuses, conducting community outreaches and mobilisation. She works with government stakeholders at the parliamentary and executive levels on policy reforms and strengthening regulatory mechanisms for the protection of communities. Tsema has managed projects that range from sexual and gender-based violence to protecting host community rights, advocating for the rights of children and women with disabilities, and the provision of sustainable energy solutions to local communities. Tsema is also passionate about sharing knowledge and building capacity. You will find her facilitating training sessions and workshops on diverse topics that promote development in Nigeria and Africa. Tsema works actively to promote feminist leadership platforms and the advancement of inclusive governance. Tsema has worked at Global Rights, a human rights capacity-building organisation, Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) There she worked on the DFID-supported (now FCDO) Innovation for Democratic Accountability Project. She also worked with the Heinrich Boell Foundation as the Programme Manager for the Gender and Democracy Programme. Tsema currently leads a joint fund for human rights defence in Nigeria. She works with donors and civil society to protect human rights activists, defenders, and the media in Nigeria.

Tsema is an Acumen West Africa Fellow, a member of the Africa Assembly, an African School of Internet Governance (AFRISIG) Fellow, and an alumnus of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. She earned an LLM in Law with a focus on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and an LLB in Public and International Law. Currently, she is a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Oxford, where she is studying for a Master’s in International Human Rights Law.