Across the blood-stained fields of Borno and Yobe, the silent forests of Niger and Zamfara, and the ravaged communities of Benue and Sokoto, Nigeria’s youth have seen too much, too soon. With Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency crippling the Northeast and organized banditry terrorizing the Northwest and North Central, the wounds run deep, not only in land and lives, but in identity and hope. NEYIF provides succour.
Yet, from the ashes, a youth-driven revolution is stirring.
Meet the Northeast Youth Initiative Forum (NEYIF), a resilient force led by young Nigerians, and particularly its Executive Director, Muhammad Dauda Gombe, who has turned trauma into purpose and violence into a call to action. While the insurgents inflict injuries on the helpless people, NEYIF is providing solace.
Youth rising amid ruin
Founded in Yobe state and driven by those who know conflict firsthand, NEYIF is on the frontline of humanitarian response, peacebuilding, and youth empowerment. Rather than wait for rescue, these young leaders have taken on the role of rescuers, offering skills, support, and a sense of belonging to thousands of displaced and vulnerable youth.
“We do not wait for peace to arrive. We create it—with our voices, our hands, and our stories,” says Muhammad Dauda Gombe, NEYIF’s executive director.
NEYIF’s mission is rooted in a simple but profound belief: that young people are not only survivors, but strategic partners in rebuilding broken societies.
From trauma to transformation
Inside IDP camps across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, NEYIF runs vocational and psychosocial support programs. These initiatives teach sewing, solar installation, computing, and business management, helping displaced youth take back control of their futures.
These aren’t just training sessions—they are therapy, community, and healing all in one.
Education as a form of resistance
Where schools have been razed and classrooms replaced with trauma, NEYIF steps in with alternative learning models. From mobile classrooms and radio broadcasts to girl-focused literacy circles, the organization ensures that education doesn’t die in conflict zones.
In areas where extremist narratives once thrived, books and blackboards are making a comeback—quietly, persistently, powerfully.
Community dialogue over conflict
NEYIF’s peace platforms are a game changer—bringing together youth, elders, faith leaders, women, and even former insurgents in open dialogue.
These conversations are designed to build empathy, restore trust, and defuse tension, especially in hotspots where ethnic, religious, or farmer-herder conflicts persist.
“Before NEYIF, we only knew fear and silence. But now, we speak, listen, and forgive,” shares Malam Idris, a community elder from Michika.
Peace, it turns out, begins with being heard.
Not just victims, visionaries
NEYIF’s strength lies in its authenticity. These are not outsiders delivering aid—they are young Nigerians helping their own. From developing counter-radicalisation toolkits to training local mediators and digital peace champions, NEYIF is reshaping what youth leadership looks like in fragile contexts.
Their message is bold and clear:
“The youth are not Nigeria’s future, they are its present. We believe in their capacity to transform conflict into cooperation, and pain into purpose,” NEYIF’s Executive Director, Dauda Muhammad Gombe said.
Building a movement, not just a mission
Beyond programs, NEYIF is building a movement. One that is youth-led, community-rooted, and future-focused. With support from local governments, civil society, international development partners, and the media, they are scaling their impact across Northern Nigeria and beyond.
‘NEYIF is a partner to collaborate with, always. We will do everything it takes to work with the organisation. The Forum requires India projection and spotlight, and journalists in Sokoto are poised for that. With media training like this and those that will follow in the future, we will be well-positioned to spotlight NEYIF in the best perspective,” Muhammad Usman Binji, Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said at a recent media training.
In a nation often held hostage by headlines of horror, NEYIF offers a counter-narrative—one of resilience, recovery, and radical hope.
The quiet rescuers
As bombs continue to fall in some corners and bandits strike in others, NEYIF is on the ground—not just delivering relief, but restoring dignity. In every skill taught, every peace forum held, and every voice empowered, they are rewriting the story of Nigeria’s troubled North.
The injuries are deep. But thanks to NEYIF, so are the solutions.
Abdallah is a media trainer and Editor-in-Chief of TheStories and ASHENEWS. He can be reached at www.elkurebe@gmail.com or +234(0)703-114-0009
