Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨

👩🏽‍💻senior content marketer for B2B SaaS companies | | |✍🏽 sometimes sharing thoughts on relationships, career, and anything helpful

[thinkUX @thinkUX_ng]

Taking the stage at Think UX 2026, our first keynote speaker, Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna, explores how AI is transforming the digital experience and why keeping the human at the centre matters. 🤖✨

Because even in the era of AI, the human experience still matters.

[thinkUX @thinkUX_ng]

MEET OUR SPEAKER: JESSICA TEE ORIKA-OWUNNA! @thejessicateeoo
A Content Marketing Strategist, Writer, and Editor, Jessica is joining us at Think UX 2026!

Date: 7th November 2026
Location: Triple C Event Centre, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

@nahdoofficial @taiwo_junzi But it is your duty. It’s your home. They are your kids for the love of God. Where is the love, please? It is everyone’s duty to do whatever it takes to make the home work! Why is this so hard to do?

[Akíntúndé Babátúndé @olorunwababs]

One thing I keep telling younger friends and colleagues is to develop depth in something.

Chase global opportunities. Apply for the fellowships. Go to the conferences. Build your network. Travel if you get the opportunity. Put yourself in rooms where you can meet people and see what is possible.

All of these things can change your life.

But somewhere along the way, make sure you are actually becoming very good at something.

Know something deeply. Develop a skill people can trust you with. Become the person who understands a subject beyond what can be picked up from a few articles or a weekend workshop.

Because opportunities can give you access, but access eventually exposes your level of competence.

You can get into the room through a fellowship. You can meet important people at a conference. You can build an impressive LinkedIn profile. You can collect certificates from some of the best institutions in the world.

Eventually, somebody will ask you to do the work.

Write the paper.

Analyse the data.

Lead the project.

Edit the story.

Build the product.

Explain the problem.

Manage the team.

Advise the organisation.

And at that point, there is nowhere to hide.

This is why I worry sometimes when I see young people becoming very good at chasing opportunities without spending enough time developing the competence those opportunities are supposed to accelerate.

Your twenties and thirties are a great time to explore. Try different things. Move across fields. Discover what interests you. I certainly do not believe everyone needs to spend their entire career doing one thing.

But exploration should still leave you with accumulated knowledge and ability.

If you have worked in climate for five years, you should understand climate issues much better than someone who arrived yesterday.

If you have covered elections for years, you should know the history, institutions, data, actors and debates around elections.

If you work in AI, go beyond knowing the latest tools. Understand how the technology works, the policy debates, the business models, the limitations and the important questions in the field.

If you are a journalist, learn to report and write exceptionally well.

Whatever it is, go deep enough that people can depend on what you know and what you can do.

And depth takes time.

It comes from reading. Practice. Repetition. Failure. Working with people better than you. Being corrected. Doing difficult assignments. Staying with a problem long enough to understand the things that are invisible from the surface.

Global opportunities are valuable. Networks matter. Visibility can help. I have benefited enormously from all three.

But none of them makes competence obsolete.

If anything, the more access you get, the more important competence becomes.

Because getting into the room is one thing.

Having something valuable to contribute when you get there is another.

Competence will never go out of fashion.

#YouWillNotFail

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

@aharikeh01 @Tomi_Tomero I don’t think she is implying something ‘sinister’ is happening between the teacher and child. She’s rather saying that protecting a child’s identity is important as much as one can help it. Exposing them online could be risky. That’s her point.

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

I agree that it’s valid for people to process their feelings in whatever way works for them.

But I also think it is respectful to communicate your decision to the other person, especially when:

- they genuinely apologized and are trying to make amends

- and if it was a sincere mistake and not a pattern of hurtful behavior

In that kind of situation, the apology and the effort to make amends already show that they value the relationship.

Even if you are not ready yet, just letting them know you need some time to yourself goes a long way. You still hold your boundary, and the other person feels like there is a chance to fix things.

Going completely silent can damage the potential of the relationship, especially when the person has owned up to their mistake and apologized. It’s only fair to at least communicate that you need space.

It’s a different case entirely if the person has a pattern of being toxic.

[Sir Dickson @Wizarab10]

That you like addressing issues immediately doesn’t mean others have to. Your coping mechanism is personal to you.

A person choosing to be incommunicado till have have dealt internally with how you wrong them before choosing to speak to you, is valid like mad.

You clam they are being manipulative by ‘keeping malice’ but you’re the one being manipulative by wanting someone you offended to want to speak to you in your own time of convenience as against theirs.

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

Sometimes, trying to address an issue in a heated moment can just make things worse. So, it’s okay to take a few hours to cool off.

But you have to let your partner know cus you owe them that respect.

Say something like, “Please can you give me some time to clear my head? I promise we’ll have this conversation [at a specific time] so we can find a way forward” and actually keep your word.

That’s better than cutting calls abruptly, walking away without communicating, and then ignoring them for hours or days.

For my husband and me, the way we resolve conflict depends on the nature of the issue.

In some cases, we resolve on the spot with no drama. For some, we discuss the matter and manage to resolve it even after things get heated.

There are times we agree to disagree temporarily and one person brings it up later (at a time when we’re both in a better headspace).

Sometimes, we agree to take some hours to calm down and reflect. And this approach has worked really well for us (at least in our experience).

And once in a blue moon, when it’s difficult to reach a compromise, we take the option of speaking to an agreed trusted friend.

These options have proven better than going silent for weeks or months.

But e no easy oohhh. I’ll be lying if I said it were. We’re just willing to do whatever we can to make the relationship work. So we try to have conversations no matter how difficult, because silence can become a weapon that kills intimacy.

Ultimately, the approach you choose depends on you and your partner cus what worked for us may not work for you.

Not everybody handles conflict the same way, which is why it helps to learn about each other’s communication and conflict resolution styles when things are good between both of you. Ask about it, listen, and talk about yours.

And not everyone has emotionally mature people in their lives who can help bring a fresh perspective to the matter. So choose who speak to (if you ever need external help).

But one thing I know firsthand is that trying to force a conversation when emotions are high can easily turn into a shouting match and lead to saying hurtful things that only make the issue worse. And silence is not the way to go.

Whichever method you choose, make sure you talk about what hurt you and let them express the way you hurt them too (cus no one is perfect and both parties will have their faults). Listen to each other and find a way forward.

You may not get it right immediately, but if you’re both willing to hear each other out, make compromises where necessary, and work on what needs work, then you’ve made real progress.

I hope this helps.

[Lekzy Red @Lekzy_r]

Sorry, I’m not saying I’m guilty oo.. but I want to ask a genuine question, how do you people now resolve conflicts in your relationship if as it stands, silent treatment is not an option🙂.. and of course, violence isn’t. So if say you are angry at your partner, you can’t take a few hours to process things and simmer down? You have to address it immediately? You and I know it’s unrealistic o, so how do you resolve conflicts? Educate me pls

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

Absolutely no reason! 150/400 🤯🤯

I hope there doesn’t come a time where it becomes 70/400. That’ll be really interesting.

[Chief Isiego @Isiego_]

There’s no reason on earth the cut off mark for jamb should be 150.

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

Definitely speaking up more during meetings. Not just to be seen, but because people can’t always recognize the depth of your thinking, your progress, or your contribution if you keep it all in your head.

Share weekly updates with your manager so they’re aware of your progress and impact.

Also, document the impact of your work in a folder connected to your personal email.

Take screenshots of the hard numbers your work contributed to and the praise you’ve received from team members and leadership.

You’ll need this proof later to land many opportunities (getting another job, making your case for a talent visa, etc.), and it’ll be painful if you can’t access that evidence because you no longer work there.

[mubiouš @Mubarak_mubious]

what's one "corporate workplace cheat code" that you wish you learned early in your career ??

[T!WA🥹🇬🇧™️ @nobod3yyyy]

I’m Nkechi, 30. Single. Living in Benin.

One thing adulthood taught me is: Everyone has a timeline for your life except you.

At 24, it was “When are you graduating?”
At 25, it was “When are you getting a job?”
At 27, it switched to “When are you getting married?”

Now at 30, it’s worse. Family WhatsApp group: “Aunty, age is not on your side.” Church: “Sister Nkechi, don’t be too choosy.” My mum called last Sunday and said, “Even that boy from the village who sells spare parts is asking about you. Just manage him.”

Like marriage is a business deal to avoid shame.

Nobody tells you how lonely it gets when you wait for the right person. Friends drop off after they marry. You get invited to weddings as the “single friend” who will catch the bouquet. You smile in photos while calculating rent and thinking, “If I marry for the wrong reason, I’ll be miserable for 40 years.”

I dated a guy for eight months last year. He was nice but wanted me to quit my job and focus on the home immediately after marriage. I said no. He called me “too modern.” We broke up.

For two weeks after, my aunt didn’t greet me properly, like I’d committed a crime.

The pressure makes you question yourself: Am I too picky? Am I too old? Am I the problem?

But I’ve learned this: Rushing into marriage to please people is the fastest way to ruin your life. I saw it with my cousin; married at 26 to please her dad, divorced at 29, now back in our mum’s house with a two-year-old.

So now I answer them the same way: “When God says it’s time.” Then I change the subject.

I’m not against marriage. I want it—but with a man who sees me as a partner, not a project to manage.

Until then, I’ll keep paying my own bills, traveling when I can, and ignoring the 30-year-old deadline they set for me.

My life isn’t a group project.

[Victor Owunna @victorcowunna]

I think it’s an ego problem and it’s not common to Nigerians alone. It’s a human thing.

My late dad used to say, ‘The truth isn’t bitter; people are bitter with the truth.’

It takes humility to unlearn, relearn, and stay open to being wrong.

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

Totally agree. But honestly, loving selflessly shouldn't automatically get anyone labeled a 'simp.'

Real love is two people looking out for each other, showing up for each other, and being willing to meet in the middle when it matters.

Still, I get that we all come from different backgrounds. Traditions and even past hurts have a way of changing how we see things like care, vulnerability, or sacrifice.

So what looks like genuine love to one person can easily look like weakness, or even being played, to someone else.

[S𝖎𝖗 S𝖊𝖆𝖓 🇺🇸 @seanpepisky]

There’s honestly nothing wrong with being a simp for your partner.

If you love someone and you naturally want to care for them, support them, show them off, make life easier for them or just love them loudly, that shouldn’t be something people mock.

These days, people act like being emotionally available is embarrassing. Everybody wants to act tough, detached or too cool to care. But in real life, most people want someone that genuinely chooses them and makes them feel loved.

Being sweet to your partner is not weakness.
Being intentional is not weakness.
Loving someone properly is not weakness.

The only time it becomes a problem is when the love is one-sided and you start abandoning yourself just to keep someone around.

But if the love is mutual? Please simp in peace. Life is already hard enough.

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

This 💯💯💯
Everyday, I thank God for the blessing of a kind partner @victorcowunna ❤️
Being kind and considerate is truly a virtue.

[👑K I N G👑 @kingsuleiman27]

One thing I have never done since I got married is wake my wife up from sleep just to make breakfast for me. Hell no.

If I wake up before her and I’m hungry, I’ll make breakfast for everyone. If she wakes up before me, she’ll do the same for everyone.

And most times, we do it together. It’s actually fun, romantic, and beautiful doing these things together… it strengthens the bond between husband and wife.

This is how I see it: why should I wake her up from sleep just to prepare breakfast for me when I can literally do it myself? We are all adults.

And this is where emotional intelligence comes into play.

There’s no way my wife will know that I’m exhausted from driving Uber all night, or that I’m too tired or occupied to make breakfast for myself or the family, and then just roll over and not care.

Nope. She’ll most definitely wake up and fix something for me and the family…. just the same way I would do for her too.

And mind you, my wife is an excellent cook, she’s amazing when it comes to cooking. She even do part time cooking blog

[Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna✨🇳🇬✨ @thejessicateeoo]

In some cases, strict boundaries do more than protect you from an emotional or sexual affair. They also help you avoid unintentionally leading someone on.

Picture this: someone (of the opposite sex) you know, or just met, is going through a breakup, depression, loss, or something deeper than they're letting on.

Because you’re kind, you listen to them for hours whenever they call. Then you check in to see if they’re okay, and they open up again.

Then you start talking about other topics to get their mind off the issue.

Before you know it, you’ve bonded more over shared interests and are now spending hours on calls with them almost everyday.

Sometimes, these calls last two or three hours and could often wander to topics you know you shouldn’t be discussing with them. But because you want to be polite and you actually enjoy the conversation, you indulge.

In your mind, you’re just being there for them during a hard season. You could even think, “This person could become a good friend.”

But the person may be receiving it differently. Maybe you’re the first person who has made them feel seen and heard in a long time. And now they’re thinking the relationship could be something more and you might be interested.

Meanwhile, you’re married or in a committed relationship. Or you’re currently emotionally unavailable. You genuinely don’t see the relationship that way, and you just wanted to help.

But good intentions don’t remove responsibility. What starts as a harmless conversation can become something else, even if you never actively encourage it. After all, you don’t control other people’s feelings.

It’s worse if you’re married or engaged and that person is the type who could do anything to get you (you never really know the level of obsession people can have).

So, your current relationship could end up paying the price for boundaries you refused to set.

Since you can’t always control how people receive your actions, the best you can do is control your own actions. Draw clear lines.

For example, avoid spending long hours talking to or emotionally supporting someone of the opposite sex, especially if:

- the friendship is new (you don’t really know this person)

- your partner doesn’t know about the friendship or they know about it and have complained about the growing closeness

- the issue you’re advising them on is relationship- or grief-related

- they’ve started showing signs of enjoying your company more than usual.

- you know you’re emotionally unavailable

Sometimes, the kindest thing you can do is redirect them to proper support.

That could mean connecting them to or offering to pay for a therapy session.

Or introducing them to a reliable pastor, mentor, or trusted friend who you know can help them better.

Setting boundaries is your responsibility. Not theirs. Not your partner's. Yours!

You're not a bad person for setting boundaries. You're being wise.

And sometimes, being wise is one of the kindest things you can do for that friend, your partner, and yourself.

[Max The Airbnb Guy @Maxtheairbnbguy]

The Quiet Discipline of Boundaries

During my past relationships, I always kept strict boundaries and distance with the opposite sex my female friends, colleagues, or associates. I do not hang out with them. I keep my distance. My ex once asked me why I do that. I just smiled. She did not understand that it was my way of enforcing emotional discipline, sexual discipline, and loyalty. Because when I am with you, I focus on you fully. No divided attention. No emotional leaks. Women mostly don't see things these way, they often think it's harmless with the opposite sex till calamity has happened.

Feelings are like flames. The more you fan them, the more they burn. A small spark a friendly text, a shared laugh, a lingering glance can grow into something destructive if you keep feeding it. This is exactly how many people, especially women, end up cheating. Not because they are evil, but because they fail to recognise how small, "harmless" interactions slowly erode their boundaries.

It often starts innocently. A man approaches a woman at the gym, at a sports club, at school, work, online, or even on the road, most times even when she tells him she has a partner he still pushes and tries to be friends to find possible loopholes to exploit to get sex.

She thinks, "He just wants to be friends." That won't hurt. She agrees to exchange contacts. The conversations start small about, work, life, hobbies, casual jokes, suddenly the stranger becomes very caring . Then they become frequent. Late night texts. Compliments that feel good to receive. Inside jokes that exclude her partner. She begins to look forward to these interactions. She smiles at her phone. She tilts the screen away when her partner walks in. She starts hiding chats.

At this point, she has already crossed a line. But instead of pulling back, she rationalises: "We are just friends. I am not doing anything wrong."

Then something shifts. She begins to compare. The new man listens more (or so it seems). He gives her attention and validation. Her partner, the one who has been loyal and consistent, suddenly seems boring, annoying, or lacking. She starts looking for fault things she never noticed before. She focuses on the missing 20 percent while completely forgetting the 80 percent her partner has been doing right.

The good things her partner has done, the bills paid, the time invested, the patience shown, the love expressed all vanish from her memory. Resentment builds. She starts arguments over small things. She pulls away emotionally. And then, one day, the line is crossed. Cheating advances to sex.

Many people lack the discipline to set and maintain boundaries. They go to the gym, sports clubs, workplaces, camps environments full of interaction with the opposite sex and they fail to say no. No to exchanging numbers. No to late night texts. No to private conversations that should not be happening.

They tell themselves, "I am in control." But feelings do not obey logic. The more you fan the flame of an inappropriate connection, the harder it is to step back.