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)[reply]

Esther Agbarakwe[edit]

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Esther Agbarakwe (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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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)[reply]

  • Comment — Beccaynr, 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)[reply]
  • Thank you, Celestina007, 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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
Source assessment table:
Source Independent? Reliable? Significant coverage? Count source toward GNG?
Youths Hold Climate Workshop On the Hills And Art and Crafts Exhibition (Daily Trust/AllAfrica, via Gale, 2011) Yes Yes See WP:NGRS via WikiProject Nigeria, "National print newspaper with online component". Article is bylined. ~ "The Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition (NYCC) which aims to inspire, empower and unite young people around a vision of a cleaner and fairer future, in collaboration with GreenBack Nigeria, organized a workshop" is context for the focus of the article, and her statements are contextualized as "Esther Agbarakwe, founder and National Co-ordinator of Nigeria Youth Climate Coalition (NYCC)", which is more than trivial coverage and therefore support for WP:BASIC notability ~ Partial
13 tips on building a coalition to tackle climate change (Guardian, 2013) Yes Yes ~ "How do you foster effective cross-sectoral cooperation to end climate change? Our expert panel suggests" is WP:SECONDARY commentary on "Agbarakwe, founder, Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition, Abuja, Nigeria" and therefore more than trival coverage and support for WP:BASIC notability ~ Partial
Girls Are the Future, Digitally (Daily Trust/AllAfrica, via Gale, 2013) Yes Yes See WP:NGRS, "National print newspaper with online component". Article is bylined. ~ Context for her statements includes "says Esther Agbarakwe, an activist using technology to inform young people on anything from climate to justice and human rights" and "Agbarakwe stoutly defends more ICT for girls." This is more than trivial coverage and therefore supports WP:BASIC notability ~ Partial
15 ways to powerfully communicate climate change solutions (Guardian, 2015) Yes Yes ~ "Our panel share their suggestions" links to a description of "an expert panel", which is WP:SECONDARY commentary on "Agbarakwe, founder, Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition and #ClimateWednesday, Abuja, Nigeria" and therefore more than trival coverage and support for WP:BASIC notability ~ Partial
Climate Activists Call For Greater Diversity Of Voices At The Table In Paris (HuffPost, 2015) Yes Yes ~ This is more than a trivial mention due to the independent context for her statements, including her work generally as a climate activist and specifically with the Africa Initiative of Youth on Climate Change and the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition, and therefore contributes support to WP:BASIC notability. ~ Partial
La planificación familiar es una buena forma de combatir el cambio climático (Chicago Tribune, 2011) Yes Yes ~ Her statements are introduced with "Esther Agbarakwe, founder of the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition, has worked with youth around the world" (Google translation), which is independent context for this report on a UN climate change conference, and adds support for WP:BASIC notability because this is not trivial coverage. ~ Partial
Climate change heats up threats to children (UNICEF, 2012), Youth speaking out about the future they want during UN High-level political forum on sustainable development, (Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth, 2014) No UN offices reporting on UN proceedings Yes No While not directly contributing to notability per WP:BASIC/WP:GNG, these verified activities help show her work is not WP:PROMO. ✘ No
Nigeria needs $142m to tackle global warming - Minister (Pulse, 2016) Yes Yes See WP:NGRS, "There's evidence of editorial oversight. Sponsored posts are marked "Featured post'" and this article is bylined. No Verifies her role as Special Assistant to the Minister of Environment on Communications ✘ No
#EvenItUp: Girls, Quality Education and Inequality, By Esther Agbarakwe (The Premium Times, 2016) No She is the author of this opinion article Yes See WP:AFSL, "reliable newspaper with an emphasis on investigative journalism and anti-corruption" No She includes some biographical information that could help develop the article. Bolded text at the end of the article states "She is the founder of SocialGood Nigeria, advisor to +SocialGood at the United National Foundations, Washington DC and also advisor to the African Youth Initiative on Climate change (AYICC)." ✘ No
Nigeria: World Earth Day - Nigeria Urges Citizens to Stop Plastic Pollution (The Premium Times, via AllAfrica, 2018, also available via Gale) Yes Yes See WP:AFSL, "reliable newspaper with an emphasis on investigative journalism and anti-corruption". Article is not bylined. No Verifies her role as a "media aide" for the Minister of State for Environment ✘ No
Lake Chad shrinking, population exploding – Buhari highlights Nigeria’s climate problems (Daily Post, 2019) Yes Yes See WP:NGRS "There's evidence of editorial oversight. Sponsored posts are marked clearly." This article is bylined. ~ "Buhari lauded the youths for representing Nigeria at UNGA as Climate Change Champions [...] Esther Agbarakwe, one of the leaders of the youth group, said [...]" is independent context and more than trivial coverage that supports WP:BASIC notability for her and her work. ~ Partial
CHAPTER 2 Youth, civil society organisations and academia (Benkenstein, Alex, et al. “Youth, Civil Society Organisations and Academia.” Youth Climate Advocacy, South African Institute of International Affairs, 2020, pp. 21-22, via JSTOR) Yes Published by the South African Institute of International Affairs Yes Yes An in-depth overview of the work of the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition since it began in 2014. ✔ Yes
The Future Awards 2012: The Full Nominees’ List (Daily Post, 2012) Yes Yes See WP:NGRS "There's evidence of editorial oversight. Sponsored posts are marked clearly." This article is bylined. value not understood This article helps support the notability of The Future Awards, e.g. "described by the World Bank as “The Nobel Prize for Young Africans”", so her nomination for this award in the "Best Use of Advocacy" category supports her WP:BASIC notability. ? Unknown
The Future Awards Africa 2013 Holds in Port Harcourt Friday (Premium Times/AllAfrica, via Gale, 2013) Yes Yes See WP:AFSL, "reliable newspaper with an emphasis on investigative journalism and anti-corruption". This article is bylined. value not understood This article further helps support the notability of The Future Awards, reporting e.g. a week of celebratory events began with an event "led by the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo" and highlights the support of the Nigerian government for these awards. Her nomination for the 2013 Best 100 therefore supports her WP:BASIC and WP:ANYBIO notability, because she has been nominated for this well-known and significant award several times. ? Unknown
[Yemi Alade, Falz, Tekno Make Future Awards Nominee List] (Premium TimesAllAfrica, via ProQuest, 2016) Yes Yes See WP:AFSL, "reliable newspaper with an emphasis on investigative journalism and anti-corruption". This article is bylined. value not understood This third nomination for The Future Awards, in the Public Service category, further supports WP:BASIC and WP:ANYBIO notability. ? Unknown
Vlisco Celebrates Women With Dare to Dream (Vanguard/AllAfrica, via Gale, 2014) Yes Yes See WP:AFSL "national paper", article is bylined ~ "The Vlisco Women's Month Award, aims at honouring and celebrating outstanding achievements of West and Central African women by identifying and rewarding those who inspire others to realise their dreams. [...] These women blaze the trail in media, development and health sectors, breaking the bounds of stereotypes and becoming inspirations for younger women." The report on her nomination for this honor supports her WP:BASIC notability. ~ Partial
Nigeria: Advocates for Positive Change (AllAfrica, via Gale, 2018) Yes Yes According to the AllAfrica About page, "Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica." This article is bylined. ~ This article focuses on another activist, but includes "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."" This is more than a trivial mention due to the context reported about this work. ~ Partial
This table may not be a final or consensus view; it may summarize developing consensus, or reflect assessments of a single editor. Created using ((source assess table)).
Beccaynr (talk) 20:09, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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)[reply]
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.
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