In this interview, Professor Humphrey Assisi Asobie recounts his experiences working for the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to increase transparency within the Nigerian government and its service industries through the increased involvement of civil society organizations. He goes into detail about the challenges he initially faced in his role, including recruitment issues, maintaining a strong moral compass, increasing capacity to undertake the work, countering the culture of secrecy amongst the bureaucracy, and finances. Asobie provides step-by-step guides as to how he tried to address these issues, and how he ensured the ideas were favorably received. He also talks about his efforts to build support for the reform initiatives to help move the reform process along, and the role of NGOs, civil society, and the public. He addresses questions regarding the purpose of transparency initiatives, and how to engage civil society not only in the initiatives, but also in using the information provided. He also emphasizes the need to conduct reform efforts against corruption from the ground up in order to establish a base from which to attack those higher up the ladder. Throughout the interview Asobie is candid about what strategies worked, what strategies did not work, and the lessons learned from the process.