Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Esther Agbarakwe


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. One user is making energetic efforts to demonstrate notability but this has failed to gain traction with other commenters who have addressed the arguments in detail. Spartaz Humbug! 16:39, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

Esther Agbarakwe

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

not yet notable. Received minor awards for "youth activism", which is a polite way of saying that people think she might one day be notable. The references are either mere notices, or promotional "interviews" such as the one in Bellanaija, where she talks about herself and why she thinks she's importanty. The interviewer just gives her a platform to promote herself and her causes  DGG ( talk ) 01:05, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Women, Environment,  and Nigeria.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 01:21, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Comment I find a Guardian interview from 2015ish in GNews that seems useful. Oaktree b (talk) 15:43, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep - WP:BASIC notability appears objectively established by the multiple independent and reliable sources. In 2015 she was featured as an expert in a panel published by the Guardian (and in 2013), and she recieved more than trivial coverage from HuffPost in 2015 and The Chicago Tribune in 2011; the 2011 Bellanaija feature is more than an interview and helps support the notability of her LEAP Africa Youth Leadership Award in 2010, and she was featured at the UN in 2014, and 2012. In 2016 and 2017, she was the Special Assistant to the Minister of Environment on Communications in Nigeria (Pulse, 2016), and a media aide in 2018, (AllAfrica) and her group was recognized by President Buhari in 2019, with reporting including a focus on her as a leader. In 2015, she participated in the #EvenItUp Campaign by BudgIT with OXFAM, Nigeria. And she was featured on the UGWire Most Powerful Women in Africa 2021 Top 10 List. And her work is included in an open-access report on JSTOR (pp. 21-22). Beccaynr (talk) 23:56, 24 February 2022 (UTC) And her nomination for The Future Awards 2012 is reported as "described by the World Bank as “The Nobel Prize for Young Africans”, so it appears to help support her notability. Beccaynr (talk) 00:16, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Comment —, I note you mention Bellanaija, please bellaNaija is not only an unreliable source, it is a very unreliable source. It was a gossip blog, then morphed into “true journalism” even at this, it is self published, haven’t developed a reputation for fact checking and have 0 editorial oversight. Celestina007 (talk) 17:40, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you,, I was unfamiliar with Bellanaija, and I had overall tried to focus on sources that appear to regard her as an expert, which from my view, is a form of WP:SECONDARY commentary that supports her notability. Even without Bellanaija, I think there still is support for notability per WP:BASIC, which allows multiple independent sources may be combined to demonstrate notability with the exception of trivial coverage. What I found indicates she has achieved more recognition for her work than awards, and at least one award has its own independent recognition, which from my view, helps support to her notability. I rarely invoke WP:IAR, but for this article, I think the potential for expansion with reliable sources would improve the encyclopedia if the article is kept and further developed. Beccaynr (talk) 18:00, 26 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Notification was made about this AfD at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women in Red. - Beccaynr (talk) 15:54, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep I think its a misrepresentation to describe the awards as minor. Lajmmoore (talk) 17:28, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete. Regarding the sources mentioned by Beccaynr: the three (1, 2, 3) Guardian sources are literally just her name + a comment from her or a 1-line blurb, and should be treated as a single source anyway since they're all from the same newspaper's panel and two of them are even by the same reporter. Being on an "expert panel" is not a criterion for notability, and as the coverage of her in these pieces is strictly non-independent save for the 1-sentence description they should not be considered for meeting even BASIC. The HuffPost article (4) only devotes three sentences to her, two of which are summarizing quotes. The Chicago Tribune article (5) is just a 16-word intro and 4 sentences of direct quotes or summaries of quotes from her, and is therefore not independent. The UN ref (6) does not contribute to notability as it is not independent (it's covering its own event). The UNICEF report (7) is a single-sentence quote in an article covering a forum she took part in--not independent. The ProShareNG source (8) is written by her--not independent. Pulse.ng (9) is almost entirely quotes from a press release she issued on behalf of the Minister of Environment relaying the topics discussed at a shareholder meeting: she is acting here strictly in her position as Special Assistant to the Minister, so this article is neither independent (it is primarily quotes) nor an example of her being treated as an expert (as it is just a recap of a ministerial discussion). I can't access the allAfrica article (10). The Eagle Online (11) is also just quoting her on how a meeting went between the Nigerian Youths Climate Group and President Buhari: not independent, and not her acting as an expert in an academic capacity. The Premium Times article (12) is by her--not independent. UGWire (13) is an un-bylined list of the publication's "top 10 most powerful women in Africa 2021" with a blurb on each entry; Ms Agbarakwe's is almost a direct copy-paste of a 2012 Nigerian Youth Hall of Fame biography submitted by her. The DailyPost ref (14) is just her name in a list--a trivial mention.
 * The LEAP Africa Nigerian Youth Leadership Awards is definitely not a notability-granting honor, for the same reasons other national youth awards are not considered sufficient for ANYBIO and do not count towards even partially satisfying criteria for NACADEMIC. The small number of sources quoting her as an expert are also not contributory to notability, as NACADEMIC C7 requires the subject be an academic expert acting in their academic capacity. Climate advocacy is not an academic venture by itself and being interviewed for one's experiences as an advocate is not the same as being regarded an "academic" for the purposes of C7 notability, as this requires being known for one's professional scholarly research.
 * The references on Wikipedia are not any better: BellaNaija is not a reliable source, and the rest that aren't trivial mentions are either blogs or released from organizations she is involved in and therefore non-independent. JoelleJay (talk) 01:41, 26 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Delete — Per extensive rationale by, as a master of dissecting Nigerian sources, I can expressly say almost all sources or pieces used in the article are all non reliable Nigerian sources, half the sources used have no reputation for fact checking, the other half have no editorial oversight (self published) and the remaining which are good sources published unreliable pieces, such as guest editors, indicative of an opinion piece or a sponsored post(depending on tone, you can tell the difference) Infact they make use of quintessential bad op-ed sources as they fail to attribute it to an established expert author in the relevant field in all this is subtle promotionalism Celestina007 (talk) 18:11, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Comment I have only started to review sources via the Wikipedia library, but coverage of Agbarakwe and her work seems to appear frequently, e.g. Nigeria: Advocates for Positive Change (AllAfrica, 2018, via Gale, "it was during that journey he met Esther Agbarakwe with whom he founded International Climate Change Development Initiative in April 2013. Popularly known as Climate Wednesday, the NGO aims to "amplify the voice of young people in the areas of health, education and environment.""), Vlisco Celebrates Women With Dare to Dream (AllAfrica, 2014, via Gale, "These women blaze the trail in media, development and health sectors, breaking the bounds of stereotypes and becoming inspirations for younger women."), The Future Awards Africa 2013 Holds in Port Harcourt Friday (AllAfrica, 2013, via Gale, "The Future Awards Africa 2013 Best 100 are: [...] Esther Agbarakwe"), Girls Are the Future, Digitally (AllAfrica, 2013, via Gale, "...says Esther Agbarakwe, an activist using technology to inform young people on anything from climate to justice and human rights. [...] Agbarakwe stoutly defends more ICT for girls."), Youths Hold Climate Workshop On the Hills And Art and Crafts Exhibition (AllAfrica, 2011, via Gale, "...said Esther Agbarakwe, founder and National Co-ordinator of Nigeria Youth Climate Coalition (NYCC).") Beccaynr (talk) 18:31, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * AllAfrica is a news aggregator, we would need to see the actual sources to assess reliability. JoelleJay (talk) 18:37, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I'll plan to review the sources in more detail later to address this issue. Beccaynr (talk) 19:00, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Comment via ProQuest: "Women Impacted by Climate Change - But Not as Victims" (AllAfrica, 2011, "...says Esther Agbarakwe, who grew up in the Niger Delta and heads the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition. [...] continued Agbarakwe, a climate change expert at the UN Climate Talks in Durban (COP17).") "Yemi Alade, Falz, Tekno Make Future Awards Nominee List" (AllAfrica, 2016, "CATEGORY 12: The Future Awards Africa Prize in Public Service [...] Esther Agbarakwe, 31"). And according to Gale, AllAfrica is also more than an aggregator, i.e. "aggregating, producing and distributing news and information from over 140 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public." Beccaynr (talk) 18:51, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * therefore, to judge whether any particular item is a RS, one must examine it specifically and not just judge by the overall title. (The descriptions in Gale, btw, are largely written by the publishers of the works it covers). DGG ( talk ) 23:08, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I would note being quoted as a participant at various conventions, in the coverage of those conventions, is different from being sought by newspapers specifically as an independent expert on a topic. But anyway NPROF doesn't apply here and I'm not aware of other notability criteria that take "being quoted in RS" into consideration, so the quoting should be treated like an interview and not contribute to notability unless independent, secondary SIGCOV is provided as well. I don't think a neutral biography can be written if we don't have any significant written commentary on the subject that isn't just listing CV material. She has an impressive resume, but I'm still not seeing the coverage to distinguish her from other environmental activists. JoelleJay (talk) 23:58, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * And let's look at the nature of her actual roles on which the "awards " are based: ...participated in ...joined the Guardian conversation ...on the sidelines of...alongside other ...co-founded... one of the four ...participated in ...an Adviser to... works in the .... The only 2 actual claims to leadership roles are "founded the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition" & "chair person for the General Assembly of ActionAid Nigeria" (neither of which are notable organisations)
 * and consider the stage of her professional development: studied Chemistry Education ...currently concluding a Master's programme in Corporate Communications ....
 * Based on the sources cited in this discussion, she was nominated for The Future Awards in 2012, 2013, and 2016, and also served in an official role in the Nigerian government from 2016 through 2018. She has been cited as an expert in a variety of sources, and quoted for her opinion in ways that appear independent, and her leadership roles have also been reported as recognized by President Buhari in 2019, included in UN proceedings, as well as a report published on JSTOR. I do not think random quotes lined up in the comment above detract from the accomplishments recognized by an array of sources over time, which objectively support her WP:BASIC notability. There also does not appear to be a need for her to independently meet WP:NPROF in addition to the recognition she has received for her work, and this does not seem like a promotional situation, as she does not appear to be selling anything nor promoting herself, but instead participating on a national and global level in climate change activism. When I have more time, I still plan to look more closely at the sources I added earlier to try to sort out the AllAfrica sources, but without further information, there does not appear to be a reason to doubt the description on Gale that AllAfrica employs journalists. Beccaynr (talk) 00:06, 27 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Comment I created a source assessment table to summarize points above, to sort AllAfrica sources, and to add an explanation for WP:ANYBIO notability:
 * Beccaynr (talk) 20:09, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * As I've said before, I disagree in general with using the brief professional descriptions standard for people quoted in newspapers as evidence toward BASIC.
 * I also strongly dispute that more substantial commentary on a group she is part of, or value judgments of that group, can be considered coverage of her whatsoever, even towards BASIC. It's therefore extremely misleading to assess the SAIIA source as SIGCOV when it doesn't mention her once! Notability is WP:NOTINHERITED, you absolutely cannot argue coverage of something she cofounded is coverage of her when there is zero biographical info on her.
 * The Guardian sources should be grouped together, and anyway are not independent coverage of her any more than the bio-blurbs accompanying any regular contributor to a newspaper. "Our panel" firmly suggests an affiliation similar to that of a correspondent and so removes any aspect of independence.
 * I would not call the Future Awards Nigeria "well-known and significant": if national youth awards could confer automatic notability absent SIGCOV, there would be no reason for NPROF to explicitly exclude youth academic achievements from even partially contributing to C1 or C2. With this in mind, I would say even the Future Awards Africa (which is what has been described as the "Nobel Prize for young Africans" -- this obviously doesn't apply to all TFAA franchises) would not be sufficient.
 * And the final AllAfrica source is almost the definition of a trivial mention; again, discussion of a group co-founded by someone is not coverage of that person. JoelleJay (talk) 00:09, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * In the table above, I tried to sort out the brief professional descriptions from articles that offer more context, by either excluding the articles from the table or marking them as not contributing to notability. I also think the in-depth coverage of the group she founded and coordinated helps show the notability of her work, and it directly responds to the nomination statement as well as concerns about promotionalism. She is mentioned in a footnote, which is unfortunately cited to Bellanaija, but that mention is how the source ended up in my results list. I also think there is a clear need for NPROF to exclude youth academic achievements, but WP:ANYBIO does not have an age-based exclusion for awards. I also found no indication she was nominated for franchise awards - the independent and reliable sources indicate this is a well-known and significant award, and that she has been nominated several times. And I think articles that add context and synthesis about her work create more than a trivial mention - for example, while a mere mention of her as a 'media aide' is trivial in the article it appears in and therefore does not support notability, when she is mentioned for her accomplishments and there is context, it seems like more than a trivial mention. I think particularly due to the variety of coverage over time and the verifiability of her achievements, WP:BASIC allows us to combine multiple sources to support an article. Beccaynr (talk) 01:14, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * In-depth coverage of the group she co-founded cannot contribute at all to her notability if it does not discuss her. I saw that her BellaNaija article was cited in that article, but do not consider unannotated references to be "mentions".
 * NPROF excludes youth academic achievements, and it would not be able to require this if national early-career awards were considered acceptable outright by ANYBIO. Similar mandates are also seen at the SNGs for sportspeople and musicians. Additionally, I have not seen any indication that all recipients of those awards can be considered notable, let alone each of the 150+ nominees each year. In fact, someone who won/was a finalist three times and had more coverage than Agbarakwe was the subject of a lengthy and well-attended AfD that overwhelmingly resulted in deletion on notability grounds. The AfD nom statement for another unanimously-deleted TFAA nominee even stated being nominated for the Future Awards Africa and the City People Entertainment Awards doesn't qualify one for stand-alone inclusion.
 * The email address linked in the DP article listing nominees is @ thefuturenigeria.com, which seemed consistent with a Nigeria-specific rather than all-Africa focus (and there is an "Africa-wide edition" of TFAA) since the main website is thefutureafrica.com, but perhaps they changed their name...? @Celestina007 may have more insight.
 * A trivial mention is still a trivial mention, it doesn't become non-trivial through context provided in other sources. Otherwise BASIC would not require mentions be non-trivial. JoelleJay (talk) 02:56, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * The Wikipedia article for The Future Awards Africa, its website and the related website for The Future Project do not seem to indicate franchises exist, in addition to the sources noted in this discussion. The Dayo Israel AfD lacks support from independent and reliable sources, and for the significance/well-known nature of The Future Awards - there appears to only be a bare assertion he was nominated three times. In the nom statement for the Fisayo Fosudo AfD, it is asserted that one TFAA nomination is not sufficient, and that the sourcing is inadequate to support the notability of the YouTuber subject. I think Agbarakwe can be distinguished from these AfDs based on her achievements being found worthy of notice by multiple independent and reliable sources, and the support for the significance/well-known nature of her multiple award nominations. I keep referring to WP:BASIC because it allows for the combination of sources, and from my view, there are sufficient sources with enough context within the source to support WP:BASIC notability. Based on the available sources, I think an article can be developed that reflects a variety of independent and reliable sources over time finding her and her work to be worthy of notice. Beccaynr (talk) 04:16, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I think applying your interpretation of BASIC would permit every assistant STEM/soc research prof at an R1 institution, and many postdocs, to bypass NPROF and receive an article. Being quoted as an expert and serving on panels is routine and expected in many areas of academia, as is your work being discussed in RS. This isn't satisfactory to meet NPROF, and it shouldn't be satisfactory for people who aren't academics, either.
 * This is the franchise page.
 * The sole keep !voter for Israel did provide links to TFAA nominee lists in 2007 and 2009, unfortunately the pages aren't up anymore. Their other link does verify being a finalist in 2007 for the major TFAA award (YPotY). I don't see how coverage of Israel like this (provided in the AfD, but the webhost changed from The Mirror to Modern Ghana) is so different from the source you claim is evidence of "support of the Nigerian government" for TFAA. One could just as easily argue the same for Israel's achievements (but on an international scale): Nigeria’s Former President and Co-Chair of the Commonwealth Africa Initiative (CAFI) Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former UN Scribe Dr. Kofi Anan, and Africa Regional Director for GLEEHD Foundation/Commonwealth Africa Initiative Africa Engagement Director Ambassador Dayo Israel, were among the Key Guest at the recently concluded Commonwealth Day Service and Commonwealth Africa Summit activities in London in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And this profile of him is far more coverage than all coverage of Agbarakwe combined, so I don't see how you can assert he lacked IRS. No one contested the reliability of it (and this source was addressed by at least two !voters), they just didn't find it sufficiently encyclopedia-worthy and rejected claims the aggregate sources met BASIC or ANYBIO.
 * The Fosudo AfD also rejects, as unreliable, a full interview/profile of him by what would appear to me to be an RS, indicating a lot more caution should be used with determining reliability of Nigerian newspaper sources. !Voters also dismissed a 6-sentence bio of him by YNaija as well as other sources interviewing him. JoelleJay (talk) 18:35, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * One difference between the coverage of Israel and Agbarakwe is that the sources I included in the table above are either listed on the WikiProject Africa/Africa Sources List or the Wikiproject Nigeria Generally reliable sources for Nigeria-related information list, and the Mirror/Modern Ghana and the Youth blog are not, although the blog claims to be edited and written by journalists. Another difference is that there appears to be a far wider range of notice taken of Agbarakwe by independent and reliable sources over time. And the TFAA franchises appear to have begun in 2016, so at least the two nominations of Agbarakwe that preceded this date appear to be the all-Africa version of the award, as also confirmed by the sources listed above. And I do not think the NPROF comparison works well here, because Agbarakwe is an activist with noteworthy accomplishments and documented activities, and she has also held an official government position. She appears to have earned her WP:BASIC recognition due to successful organizing, advocacy, and experience, not based on her academic achievments. Beccaynr (talk) 19:05, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Do you not think academics have "noteworthy accomplishments and documented activities"?? And I do not see how having been an assistant to a minister is relevant here. All that is relevant is whether she has been the subject of significant independent coverage, and a collection of news blurbs briefly stating her position in the context of quoting her is not different in any way from those seen when quoting academics. Being one of 150+ nominated for a notable national young person's award is also not materially different from being nominated for a notable national early-career researcher award. If BASIC or ANYBIO could be met with these achievements we would have no need for the exclusions present in NPROF C7 or C2, nor would we have to clarify that winning a significant-but-not-Guggenheim-Fellowship-level senior academic award only "partially contributes" toward C1. JoelleJay (talk) 20:26, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I think the main questions are what constitutes trival coverage per WP:BASIC, whether WP:ANYBIO can contribute support to notability, and whether the award nominations contribute to WP:BASIC notability. WP:NPROF is independent from the other subject-specific notability guidelines, such as WP:BIO, WP:MUSIC, WP:AUTH, etc., and is explicitly listed as an alternative to the general notability guideline, so while an academic can be notable per guidelines other than NPROF, it does not appear that other guidelines are subject to the constraints of NPROF criteria. Beccaynr (talk) 21:58, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree those are the main questions. The reason I bring up NPROF is because its criteria are not supposed to be stricter than GNG/ANYBIO/BASIC; the whole reason it exists is because academics are not expected to receive sufficient SIGCOV in independent RS, and none of the NPROF criteria are intended to predict GNG. So if being quoted as an expert or as an event participant was sufficient for GNG/BASIC we would not need C7 at all (and we'd have an article on every sheriff and medical director from counties with 3+ newspapers...). And if winning or being nominated several times for prestigious early-career awards was sufficient for ANYBIO we would not need C2 and certainly wouldn't have the exclusionary language in C2 or C1. The purpose of those criteria is to permit articles on scholars receiving notable awards that don't satisfy ANYBIO and are not expected to generate SIGCOV of the recipients. JoelleJay (talk) 19:40, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree those are the main questions. The reason I bring up NPROF is because its criteria are not supposed to be stricter than GNG/ANYBIO/BASIC; the whole reason it exists is because academics are not expected to receive sufficient SIGCOV in independent RS, and none of the NPROF criteria are intended to predict GNG. So if being quoted as an expert or as an event participant was sufficient for GNG/BASIC we would not need C7 at all (and we'd have an article on every sheriff and medical director from counties with 3+ newspapers...). And if winning or being nominated several times for prestigious early-career awards was sufficient for ANYBIO we would not need C2 and certainly wouldn't have the exclusionary language in C2 or C1. The purpose of those criteria is to permit articles on scholars receiving notable awards that don't satisfy ANYBIO and are not expected to generate SIGCOV of the recipients. JoelleJay (talk) 19:40, 4 March 2022 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.