In-Depth and Special Reports, UNESCO REF Media Centre

The Gathering at Maryam Babangida House: A Nation Mobilised for Its Women

How a programme born in a modest Abuja hall in June 2023 reached the national stage on 4 March 2025, what was pledged there on the record, what the numbers behind Nigeria's hunger actually say, and what happened in the months after the speeches ended.

File UNESCO-REF/UMC/INV/2025-03. 4 March 2025, Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Before You Open This File

This file reconstructs a single morning in Abuja and the thirty months that led to it. On Tuesday, 4 March 2025, at the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development, the UNESCO REF and Police Officers' Wives Association (POWA) 12 Million Young Women in Agriculture Mobilisation Campaign was flagged off to mark the United Nations International Women's Day. The ceremony lasted a morning. The file behind it runs back to June 2023 and forward to December 2025.

Key Judgements

This page states the file's principal conclusions before the evidence is laid out, in the manner of a formal assessment. Each judgement carries a level of confidence that reflects the quality and independence of the evidence behind it, not the importance of the subject.

The Young Women in Agriculture programme is an established national initiative, not a single event. The independent record documents its launch in June 2023, state and legislative engagement in September 2023, the sensitisation of POWA leadership as programme focal persons in March 2024, the national flag-off on 4 March 2025, the start of pioneer training on 10 March 2025, an operational campaign team in July 2025 and a federal partnership announced in December 2025.

The crisis the programme addresses is severe and officially measured. Food inflation reached a record 40.87 percent in June 2024, and the government-led Cadre Harmonisé projected 33.1 million people in crisis or worse for the lean season of 2025.

The programme's central premise, that food insecurity is a national security problem, is shared at the summit of the security establishment. The Inspector-General's farm patrols in the North-East, announced in August 2024, and his statement in person at the flag-off of 4 March 2025 express the same doctrine.

The programme's design addresses documented constraints on women in agriculture: hydroponics reduces dependence on land, and kenaf offers an industrial market. The design is consistent with international evidence on the gender gap in agriculture, but outcomes have not yet been independently measured.

Federal financing will be pursued at scale. The Presidency restated its commitment to broker financing in December 2025 and set out a phased structure for 4.5 million beneficiaries, but disbursement is not yet on the independent record.

This file makes no judgement on whether twelve million women will be trained and certified by 2030. The evidence available does not support a judgement either way. Attainment depends on financing, trainer capacity and market access, which are listed as indicators on the closing pages.

The Scholarship Behind the Argument

The argument made at Maryam Babangida House was not improvised. Each of its premises has a place in the established literature of development economics and food policy. This page sets the campaign within that literature, so that readers can judge it against the standard of the field.

Part One: The Hall

Tuesday, 4 March 2025. Abuja. A morning, a roster and a target large enough to be checked.

The Hall on Tuesday Morning

The Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development stands in central Abuja as one of the country's oldest institutions dedicated to the advancement of women. On the morning of 4 March 2025 its forecourt filled early. Protocol officers worked the gate. Security details took their positions. Inside, rows of chairs faced a stage dressed for a national occasion.

Who Was in the Room

The value of a gathering can be read in its roster. These were the principal offices present on 4 March 2025. Read together, they describe a programme that had moved beyond a single organisation and into the machinery of the state.

Part Two: The Hunger

What the statistics say, what the markets said, and the emergency that followed.

A Country Measured in Plates

To understand why a hall in Abuja filled with ministers on a Tuesday morning, the file must leave the hall. The evidence for the crisis that made the gathering necessary is not rhetorical. It is published, quarter by quarter, by the Nigerian state and its partners.

What the Market Women Said

Statistics describe a country. Markets describe a morning. In the months before the flag-off, the price of a measure of grain, a tuber of yam or a bag of garri had become the most discussed figure in the Nigerian household, and the language people used to describe it was older than any statistic.

The Price Ledger

The National Bureau of Statistics publishes Nigeria's consumer price index each month. Between 2023 and 2024 its food component recorded the steepest climb in the history of the series.

Thirteen July Two Thousand and Twenty-Three

On 13 July 2023, six weeks after the inauguration, the Federal Government declared a state of emergency on food security. The declaration is the hinge on which much of this file turns, because it converted a social problem into a matter of national priority, and it opened institutional space for programmes of scale.

Part Three: The Making

June 2023 to March 2025: the programme before the stage, and the arithmetic of twelve million.

June 2023: A Smaller Room

Before the national stage there was a smaller room. On 29 June 2023, Daily Trust reported the launch in Abuja of the Young Women in Agriculture Champions in Nigeria, an initiative of the Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO under SIP-ALPHA, in collaboration with Nigerians in the Diaspora and with support from Women's Space USA.

Recruiting the Engine

A programme with a target of twelve million cannot be delivered from a single office. It needs a network that reaches into every state, every police command and, ideally, every local government. In 2023 UNESCO REF found that network in the Police Officers' Wives Association.

The Diaspora Channel

Thirteen days after the Ogun report, the programme acquired a second institutional ally, this time in the National Assembly. On Thursday, 28 September 2023, the News Agency of Nigeria reported that the UNESCO REF President and the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Hon. Tanko Adamu, had paid a courtesy visit to the POWA National President in Abuja.

IWD 2024: Preparing the Command Structure

A year before the flag-off, the programme prepared the structure that would carry it. On International Women's Day 2024, UNESCO REF and POWA brought together the wives of police command officers, Assistant Inspectors-General and Deputy Inspectors-General, with POWA state chairpersons from across the federation, for a sensitisation on the plans of the programme.

The Arithmetic of Twelve Million

Twelve million is a number that invites disbelief. The file therefore sets out how the figure was constructed in the public record, and how its timeline was stated at different points.

Part Four: The Pledges

What was said on the record on 4 March 2025, by whom, and with what weight of evidence.

The Charge from New York

The most consequential address of the day came from New York. A keynote was delivered on behalf of Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group.

The State Speaks

The two statements that gave the flag-off its federal weight came from the Minister of Women Affairs and the Inspector-General of Police, both of whom attended in person.

The Purse and the Promise

Programmes of this kind fail most often for want of money. The statement that addressed money directly came from the Presidency.

The Secretariat and the Science

A national campaign needs a home and a laboratory. On 4 March 2025 it was given both.

The Coordinator's Ledger

The longest address of the morning came from the National Coordinator. It is the most thoroughly corroborated speech of the day: Daily Trust and the Nigerian Tribune both reported it at length.

Part Five: The Method

Two disciplines, four pillars and three women: the design of the answer.

Farming Without Soil

The programme chose two disciplines. The first, hydroponics, is the cultivation of plants in water carrying dissolved nutrients, with the roots supported by an inert medium or suspended in solution, and without soil.

The Fibre Crop

The second discipline is Agro-Kenaf Enterprise Development. Kenaf, Hibiscus cannabinus, is a fast-growing plant of the hibiscus family, cultivated for the fibre in its stem.

Four Pillars, One Argument

The National Coordinator set out the campaign's rationale in four strategic objectives. Read together they form a single argument: that the economic empowerment of women in agriculture is a national security strategy, not a welfare measure.

Three Women, Three Verdicts

No framework can substitute for the evidence of the people it serves. Three pioneer participants gave their accounts at the flag-off. They represent three different distances from agriculture.

Part Six: After the Hall

March to December 2025: the training, the campaign team and the federal commitment.

Six Days Later

Every programme of this kind lives or dies in the days after its ceremony. In this case the record gives a date.

Soil to Security

Five months after the flag-off, the campaign acquired an operational arm. At POWA's 61st anniversary celebration, held at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos, the POWA National President inaugurated the National Soil to Security Campaign Team, reported by Leadership, The Guardian and ThisDay on 30 and 31 July 2025.

The Federal Commitment

On Tuesday, 9 December 2025, the question raised by the word broker received a public answer. At a joint national news conference in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Food Security announced a federal partnership with UNESCO REF to empower 4.5 million Nigerians under a national agricultural enterprise programme.

The Distance Between the Hall and the Field

The investigation began with a question: whether the gathering at Maryam Babangida House was a ceremony or a commitment. The record assembled in this file allows a measured answer.

Indicators to Watch

A file that ends with a judgement must also say how that judgement could be proved wrong. The following indicators will show, over the coming years, whether the commitments of 4 March 2025 are being delivered. UNESCO REF Media Centre will revise this file as each becomes measurable.

Exhibit Register

The register lists the visual and documentary exhibits relied on in this file, with their provenance. Documents are identified by publisher and date; photographs by their holder.

Source Annex and Citation

The following sources were consulted for this file and graded by class: Class A, official statistics and statements; Class B, independent press; Class C, the first-hand documentation of the UNESCO REF Media Centre. Independent press and official statistics are listed first; the documentation of the UNESCO REF Media Centre follows.

The Needful Now: How Nigeria Built a Covenant Between Its Badge and Its Youth

From four words spoken at Eagle Square on inauguration morning, through fourteen months of rising prices, ten days of protest, one working visit to police headquarters and a hall of more than four hundred delegates on International Youth Day: the investigation of how a country under strain chose dialogue, and what it promised when it did.

File UNESCO-REF/UMC/INV/2024-08. 12 August 2024, Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Before You Open This File

This file covers the four hundred and forty-one days between two Mondays. It opens at Eagle Square, Abuja, on Monday, 29 May 2023, and closes at the Police Resource Centre, Jabi, on Monday, 12 August 2024, the United Nations International Youth Day. Between those two Mondays a reform reordered the price of everything in Nigeria, the streets of its cities filled in protest, and an unscheduled conversation at police headquarters produced the first summit between UNESCO REF and the Nigeria Police Force.

Key Judgements

This page states the file's principal conclusions before the evidence is laid out, in the manner of a formal assessment. Each judgement carries a level of confidence that reflects the quality and independence of the evidence behind it.

The UNESCO REF Nigeria Police Youths Summit took place on 12 August 2024 at the Police Resource Centre, Jabi, with more than 400 delegates, and with the participation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Minister of Police Affairs, Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris Malagi, through their designated representatives. The facts are corroborated by the Voice of America, The Guardian and the Ministry of Police Affairs.

The #EndBadGovernance protests of 1 to 10 August 2024 were rooted in documented economic conditions that followed the reforms of May and June 2023: a near tripling of petrol prices within days, a sharp fall in the naira, and food inflation that reached a record 40.87 percent in June 2024.

The summit was convened at speed, as a response to the protests. The Force announced it on 7 August, while protests continued in parts of the country, and held it two days after their scheduled end. It followed the working visit of the UNESCO REF President to Louis Edet House during the protests.

The summit marked a change in the register of engagement between the police leadership and the young. The Inspector-General spoke of empowerment and voice, acknowledged misconduct within the Force and announced rights protection in training. Whether that change has been institutionalised is not yet on the independent record.

The economic and digital dimensions of security were explicitly recognised on the record: the keynote speaker described the migration of threats from the physical to the digital space, and the Inspector-General announced farm patrols to protect food production in the North-East.

This file makes no judgement on the durability of the covenant spoken of on 12 August 2024. The proposed quarterly dialogue and divisional committees have not been independently reported as established. They are listed as indicators on the closing pages.

The Scholarship Behind the Summit

The summit's premise, that the security of a state depends on the trust of its young citizens, is not a slogan. It is one of the better-supported findings in the study of policing, conflict and public order. This page sets the events of August 2024 within that research.

Part One: The Shock

29 May 2023 to June 2024: four words, two reforms and a staircase of prices.

Eagle Square: Four Words on Inauguration Morning

The Federal Government had declared Monday, 29 May 2023 a public holiday. The announcement, made the Friday before by the Minister of Interior, gave the nation a day of rest to witness the inauguration of its sixteenth democratically elected President. Offices closed. Markets thinned. Televisions were switched on.

The Pumps on Tuesday

On Tuesday, 30 May 2023, the price boards changed. Less than twenty-four hours after the inaugural address, petrol was selling at around ₦600 a litre in many parts of the country, against about ₦195 the week before. Many stations shut their gates and held stock. The few that opened drew queues that bent around corners.

Five Cities, One Shock

A reform announced in one city is felt in all of them at once. The exclamations differ by language. The arithmetic does not.

The Second Blade: The Naira

The fuel reform was the first blade. The second fell sixteen days later. On Wednesday, 14 June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the collapse of all segments of the foreign exchange market into a single window, allowing the market to determine the rate of the naira.

The Staircase of Prices

The National Bureau of Statistics publishes the consumer price index every month. Read in sequence, the reports for 2023 and 2024 resemble a staircase being built in real time.

Part Two: The Gathering Storm

The state's responses, fourteen months of grievance, and the field work before the streets filled.

The Emergency and the Responses

The state did not stand still. On 13 July 2023 the Federal Government declared a state of emergency on food security. Over the following year it announced a series of measures intended to cushion the reforms.

Fourteen Months of Accumulated Grievance

Between 29 May 2023 and 1 August 2024 the deterioration in the cost of living was not quiet. It was loud, visible and documented, and it fell hardest on the young.

The South-West Advocacy, Before the Streets Filled

In May and June 2024, about two months before the protests, the President of UNESCO REF was in the South-West geopolitical zone on an advocacy tour with the POWA National President, presenting the agricultural value chain as a structural route out of reform-induced hardship.

Part Three: The Streets

1 to 10 August 2024: the protests, the flags, the broadcast and the toll.

First of August: Day One

On Thursday, 1 August 2024, young Nigerians walked into the streets of their cities carrying placards and the hashtag #EndBadGovernance. The protest had been called for ten days, from 1 to 10 August.

Kano and the Flags

The most alarming images of the first week came from the North. In Kano, demonstrations turned violent; offices were looted, including facilities of the Nigerian Communications Commission, and Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf declared a twenty-four-hour curfew.

Sunday, Four August: The Broadcast

At 7 am on Sunday, 4 August 2024, the fourth day of the protests, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu addressed the nation. The broadcast had been announced the evening before by his spokesman.

The Toll

The protests ended earlier than their organisers had planned. The Voice of America attributed the early end to security crackdowns. Their cost was counted in lives, in money and in trust.

Part Four: The Bridge

A working visit to police headquarters while the protests were still running.

Louis Edet House: The Working Visit

Louis Edet House, on Shehu Shagari Way in Abuja, is the headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force. It is not a building that youth development institutions visit without a formal reason. During the period of the protests, with the streets still contested and the national mood still raw, the President of UNESCO REF went there on a working visit.

The Force Spokesman on the Record

The Force Public Relations Officer's statement at the working visit is the statement of an institution that decided, while the protests were still running, that the right response was partnership.

Part Five: The Hall

Monday, 12 August 2024, International Youth Day: every tier of the security state in one room.

Twelfth of August: The Hall

On Monday, 12 August 2024, the United Nations International Youth Day, the Nigeria Police Resource Centre in Jabi, Abuja, opened for a one-day summit under the theme Enhancing the Nigerian Youth's Value for National Security Intelligence.

The Presidency in the Room

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, addressed the summit through the Honourable Minister of Youth Development, Dr Jamila Bio Ibrahim, who spoke on his behalf, as the Nigeria Police Force's account of the day, carried by The Guardian, confirms.

The Inspector-General

The Inspector-General of Police, Dr Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, attended in person. The Force had announced a special appearance. What he delivered was a full address and, later, an open exchange with the delegates.

The Convener

The President of UNESCO REF addressed the summit as its convener. His central sentence was reported by the Voice of America to an international audience.

The Ministry and the Commission

Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, Honourable Minister of Police Affairs, addressed the summit through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr James Sule, who delivered his address. The Ministry published the address on 12 August.

The Keynote: Trust, Demonstrated

The guest keynote was delivered by Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, SAN, a former Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University. It was the address that named the problem the summit had gathered to solve.

The National Security Adviser's Goodwill

The office that coordinates the whole of Nigeria's security architecture was in the hall. The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, sent his goodwill message to the summit through Major General P. P. Malla, Director of Defence Affairs.

Part Six: The Covenant

The questions, the resolutions, the commitments, and the distance still to travel.

The Dialogue

The summit's most revealing hour was its open exchange. Delegates put questions to the Inspector-General directly, and he answered them in public, two days after the protests had ended.

The Youth Resolutions

The young did not come only to listen. At least one national coalition came with written resolutions.

The Commitments

The address delivered on behalf of the President set out the Federal Government's programme for the young. PRNigeria recorded its contents in detail. They are listed here as commitments, because commitments are what a record exists to hold.

The Compact and the Distance Still to Travel

The investigation began with a reform announced on a public holiday and ends in a hall on International Youth Day. Between those two days the record shows a country under strain, a protest that ended in loss, and a choice, made by a police force and a youth development institution, to answer with dialogue.

Indicators to Watch

The commitments of 12 August 2024 can be tested. The following indicators will show whether the covenant described by the convener is being kept. UNESCO REF Media Centre will revise this file as each becomes measurable.

Exhibit Register

The register lists the visual and documentary exhibits relied on in this file, with their provenance. All photographs were taken at the events named and are held by the UNESCO REF Media Centre.

Source Annex and Citation

The following sources were consulted for this file and graded by class: Class A, official statistics and statements; Class B, independent press; Class C, the first-hand documentation of the UNESCO REF Media Centre. Independent press, official statements and official statistics are listed first; the documentation of the UNESCO REF Media Centre follows.