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Notes from the National Youth Peace Convening in Abuja

· 2 min read

Notes from the National Youth Peace Convening in Abuja

Last weekend HAPEI convened 240 young people from 22 states at Sheraton Abuja for the third annual National Youth Peace Convening. What follows is a short recap of the sessions that stayed with us, and the commitments we came away with.

The three sessions that mattered most

The first was a Friday morning panel on the role of religious leaders in early conflict signals. Three imams and two pastors, all from communities that have seen inter-communal tension, spoke honestly about what they had gotten wrong before they had gotten it right. The candour set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

The second was the closed-door session for state Campus Peace Ambassadors, which we could not open to the wider room by design. What we can share is that the ambassadors produced a set of eleven recommendations for how universities should respond to campus violence, and we are working to publish those recommendations before the end of the month.

The third was a Saturday afternoon workshop on the digital dimension of local conflict. Younger participants, most of them under 25, walked older participants through how rumours actually spread on WhatsApp and TikTok in their communities. Nearly everyone learned something. The intergenerational format is something we will repeat.

What the participants asked us for

Several participants pushed us on the gap between what we say we do and what our reporting actually shows. Fair criticism. We have committed to publishing a plain-language version of our next annual report alongside the technical one, so any interested reader can understand what our numbers mean.

Others asked for more content in Hausa and Igbo. This is a resource question and we are working on it.

Thanks

Our thanks to the Office of the Vice President for opening the convening, to Ford West Africa for the funding, and to every participant who took time out of their weekend and their studies to be present. Photos and session recordings will be available on our Resources page from Monday.