The Booming Boomer

What if some of the behaviours we try to correct in autistic children are actually their way of coping? Rahanatu Yusuf, Founder & Managing Director of The Brainbloom Centre, joins Hadiza Isma El-Rufai for an important conversation about autism, parenting, special needs education and what meaningful inclusion actually looks like. Rahanatu explains why some autistic children avoid eye contact, w...

Richard Ali has spent his career moving between literature, publishing, law, peacebuilding and entrepreneurship. In this episode of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Richard joins Hadiza Isma El-Rufai for a wide-ranging conversation about Nigerian identity, leadership, conflict, artificial intelligence, publishing and the power of storytelling. Richard explains why he believes Nigeria’s elite have faile...

Samira Haruna Sanusi lived through the extreme realities of sickle cell disease: multiple organ damage, six years in a wheelchair, years of treatment and more than 30 surgeries just to survive. Then a successful bone marrow transplant changed her life. In this episode of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai sits down with Samira to talk about the reality behind her survival, the younge...

Suraj Oyewale did not originally plan to become an entrepreneur. His ambition was to rise through corporate Nigeria and eventually become an executive at a major oil and gas company. But an unexpected turn in his career pushed him into consulting, a side business and eventually full-time entrepreneurship. In this episode of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Suraj Oyewale, widely known as Sir Jarus, join...

Dike Chukwumerije has spent years using poetry and storytelling to examine what it means to be Nigerian. In this episode of The Booming Boomer Podcast, he joins Hadiza Isma El-Rufai for a conversation about patriotism, Nigerian identity, Pan-Africanism, creativity, family and the power of words. Dike explains why he still believes in Nigeria despite its challenges, and why he believes the country...

Why do we hide parts of ourselves, even from the people closest to us? Fatima Bala, author of Broken: Not a Halal Love Story, Hafsatu Bebi and The Lies We Tell, joins Hadiza Isma El-Rufai for a conversation about writing honestly, creating deeply human characters and telling Northern Nigerian stories without pretending difficult realities do not exist. Fatima reveals that Broken was originally wri...

“I didn’t choose Nigeria. Nigeria chose me.”After moving from the United States to Nigeria, Mira Mehta saw tomatoes being left along rural roads while much of the tomato paste sold in the country was imported. That contradiction eventually became the idea behind Tomato Jos. Mira Mehta is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tomato Jos, an agribusiness working with smallholder farmers to strengthen tomato far...

Gloria Chinyere Okwu joins The Booming Boomer Podcast for a conversation on cancer advocacy, public health, writing, and the lived experiences that shaped her voice. A Nigerian writer, communication specialist, and healthcare advocate, Gloria speaks about turning personal experience into public awareness, and why stories can become powerful tools for health advocacy in Nigeria. Guest: Gloria Chiny...

He cried while writing the poem. Then cried again when he tried to type it. Abdulkareem Baba Aminu speaks about pain, creativity, comics, journalism, Northern Nigeria, and the story behind his poetry collection, Kill The Poet, Save The World. Abdulkareem Baba Aminu is one of Northern Nigeria’s most accomplished creative voices. He is a journalist, columnist, cartoonist, illustrator, writer, poet,...

he was First Lady of Niger State, but she still went to the hospital, attended clinics, performed surgeries, took deliveries, and treated patients. Dr. Amina Abubakar Bello shares what it was like to serve publicly while remaining a practicing obstetrician-gynaecologist, and why her medical work shaped the way she understood leadership, healthcare, and service. Dr. Amina Abubakar Bello is a consul...

At a workshop, the men stretched their arms wide to show how much money they wanted. The women barely opened their hands. That moment changed everything for Zainab Salihijo Ahmad. In Episode 14 of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai speaks with Zainab Salihijo Ahmad, a Harvard-trained entrepreneur, philanthropist, and financial educator. Zainab is the Founder and Creative Director of...

Episode 13 of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai speaks with Nadine Ibrahim, a Nigerian filmmaker and founder of Naila Media. Nadine is known for telling stories from Northern Nigeria and spotlighting women, identity, and underrepresented voices through film. Her work includes Through Her Eyes, Marked, Tolu, and I Am Not Corrupt. Through Her Eyes was nominated in the short film categ...

In this episode of The Booming Boomer Podcast, hosted by Hadiza Isma El-Rufai, Dr. Jamila Aliyu Dikko joins the conversation to discuss headaches, migraines, and the importance of patient education. Dr. Jamila is a medical doctor and Adult Headache and Migraine Specialist in Nigeria. She is the lead at The Headache Doc Nigeria, a clinic focused on helping people understand and manage headache and...

In Episode 9 of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai speaks with Dan Bello (Bello Galadanchi), an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. Through his work, Dan Bello uses storytelling and visual media to examine governance, raise awareness, and highlight issues affecting communities. In this conversation, he shares his approach to content creation, the responsibility that c...

In Episode 8 of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai sits down with Surayyah Ahmad, Founding Partner at Sabou Capital and Taskmaster for the YEIB Investment Funds. Surayyah works at the intersection of venture capital and entrepreneurship, helping build investment pathways for founders and youth-led businesses across Africa. In this conversation, she shares insights on early-stage inve...

In Episode 7 of The Booming Boomer Podcast, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai sits down with Lola Shoneyin, Nigerian author, poet, and founder of the Aké Arts & Book Festival. Known for her novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, Lola has played a central role in shaping contemporary African literary conversation. In this episode, we discuss writing, cultural leadership, institution-building, and what...

In  Episode 6  of  The Boomin Boomer Podcast , we sit down with  Maryam Bukar Hassan , also known as  Alhanislam . In this episode, Maryam talks about her journey as a spoken-word poet, how her work moved from private expression to public life, and what changes when your voice begins to carry weight beyond yourself. We discuss visibility, responsibility, pressure, and the realities of being listen...

In episode 5 of The Booming Boomer Podcast, we sit down with Hafsah Jumare, Founder and CEO of CoAmana, an agri-tech company operating across Nigeria and Kenya to strengthen and digitize traditional and informal agricultural markets. Hafsah breaks down how informal markets really function, why farmers lose produce when buyers and pricing are unclear, and how CoAmana supports market leadership and...