Nigeria, Jan. 22 -- I have known lack, and I have known abundance. I have sat in corridors where futures were debated, and in rooms where decisions capable of making or breaking millions of Nigerian lives were reached. I have joined struggles that shifted political temperatures. I have worked with men and women whose words recalibrated national conversations.

I say this not as bravado, but as context.

Because wisdom, when it comes, is rarely born of comfort. It is forged in proximity to power and in surviving its misuse.

As a young woman, my political consciousness was shaped by texts and leaders who believed that power must be anchored in empathy, restraint, and service. Hillary Clinton's insistence on women as agents of governance, B...