Kano, August 2023. The nationwide protests against economic hardship had swept through the city and, in some neighbourhoods, turned into inter-communal clashes that left properties destroyed and trust in ruins. By September, some streets that had housed people of different faith backgrounds for generations were effectively segregated by fear.
Zainab Garba was nineteen, studying at Bayero University, and furious — not at the people on the other side of the divide, but at the silence. “Everyone was waiting for someone else to fix it,” she told ENPUAI facilitators when they arrived in Kano in October 2023. “I didn’t want to wait.”
ENPUAI enrolled Zainab in a five-day Youth Peace Ambassador Training. She learned facilitation, conflict mapping, and trauma-informed communication. She graduated and immediately recruited eight other young women from her neighbourhood — Muslim and Christian, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba — to form a community peace team.
Over the next three months, Zainab’s team ran twelve community conversations in schools, mosques, and churches across two local government areas. They created a WhatsApp group that now has 340 members who share early warnings of rising tension and mobilise rapid dialogue responses before situations escalate.
The Kano State Peacebuilding Agency has since formally recognised Zainab’s group and invited them to participate in the state’s Early Warning and Early Response system. ENPUAI continues to provide mentorship and small grants for their community activities.
“I learned that most people on the ‘other side’ are just as afraid as I am. Once you know that, everything changes.” — Zainab Garba, Youth Peace Ambassador, Kano
Zainab is one of over 1,200 young people ENPUAI has trained as peace ambassadors across Nigeria’s 36 states. They are the reason we believe in Nigeria’s future with absolute confidence.