YEEP Alumni Nigeria seeks meaningful youth participation in decision-making against violent extremism

YEEP Alumni Nigeria has called for greater and more meaningful participation of young people in decision-making processes as part of efforts to prevent violent extremism and strengthen peace and security in the country.

The YEEP alumni, a network of young Nigerians focused on preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE), made the call in a statement issued to mark International Youth Day 2026, with the theme, “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.”

It said although young people live in different circumstances, including communities affected by conflict, unemployment, displacement, discrimination, political exclusion, drug abuse, online manipulation, and distrust in public institutions, they share common aspirations for safety, respect, education, employment, participation and a better future.

According to the statement, these aspirations should not be viewed solely as development concerns but also as critical peace and security issues.

The PCVE-focused network said prevention should begin before young people are recruited into extremist groups or violence escalates, stating however that early prevention requires communities to pay attention to grievances, provide safe avenues for young people to express their concerns, counter misinformation and hate narratives, and create credible alternatives to violence.

According to the statement marking the IYD2026 celebration, young people are often portrayed in PCVE discussions either as vulnerable individuals who could be recruited by extremist groups or as instruments for fighting extremism.

It, however, argued that both perspectives were incomplete.

“Young people are not simply potential victims or instruments of prevention. They are already community actors, peacebuilders, educators, digital communicators, entrepreneurs, volunteers, early-warning actors and bridge-builders. Their proximity to community realities gives them knowledge that institutions and programmes may not always capture. Their presence in schools, markets, religious spaces, neighbourhoods and online communities means that they often encounter emerging tensions, rumours and harmful narratives before they become visible to formal systems,” the statement partly reads.

Continuing, the youth network said young people’s proximity to community realities gives them valuable knowledge that institutions and programmes may not always capture.

However, it stressed that meaningful youth participation must go beyond inviting young people to workshops, conferences, and commemorative events, adding that participation must translate into actual influence over policies, programmes and community decisions.

“A young person who is consulted but whose recommendations never shape a programme, policy or community decision has been heard, but not meaningfully included. Similarly, training young people in peacebuilding without creating pathways for them to apply those skills leaves valuable capacity underused.

“We therefore believe that the 2026 International Youth Day theme provides an opportunity to reconsider how societies approach youth engagement in peace and security,” the statement added.

On the digital environment, the group said violent extremism increasingly interacts with misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, conspiracy narratives, and identity-based manipulation and therefore advocated stronger media and information literacy programmes to equip young people and communities to identify manipulation, verify information and resist narratives that promote hatred or violence.

The youth-led network, which graduated from the Youth Engagement and Empowerment Programme (YEEP), a prgramme run by the United Nations Office on Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), also urged stakeholders to create credible alternatives to violence by providing young people with opportunities to learn, earn, organise, participate and contribute to their communities.

It said economic empowerment should be viewed not only as an income issue but also as a means of strengthening young people’s agency, dignity and resilience.

On community-based prevention, the group stressed that there is no single pathway into violent extremism and no universal solution, urging stakeholders to develop interventions based on local realities, grievances, relationships and existing peace mechanisms rather than adopting one-size-fits-all approaches.

YEEP Alumni Nigeria further called for meaningful youth participation in local and national peace and security processes; greater investment in youth-led prevention initiatives; stronger media and information literacy; accessible economic and livelihood opportunities; locally grounded PCVE approaches; and safe spaces for dialogue across social, ethnic, and religious divides.

The network urged governments, development partners, civil society organisations, community and religious leaders, the media and technology platforms to stop treating young people merely as “leaders of tomorrow.”

“Young people are already living with the consequences of decisions being made today. They must therefore have a meaningful role in shaping those decisions today.”