Some 200 secondary faculty college students collect in Lagos at present to showcase sensible options to challenges affecting their colleges and communities. The occasions mark the conclusion of worldwide non-profit Narrative 4’s Cities Faculty Programme. College students will participate in an interschool Story Trade, current their artistic work and pitch their civic engagement options to a panel of skilled judges who will award the profitable faculty a US$1000 grant to help the implementation of its proposed undertaking. Over the course of November, a complete of 1000 college students will collect in Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna to have a good time the conclusion of this yr’s Cities Faculty Programme and compete for undertaking funding.
College students from 10 secondary colleges in a number of Lagos districts have spent the previous 6 months growing the talents to turn into compassionate leaders of their communities. At the moment’s occasion serves as each a celebration of the programme journey and a platform for younger folks to show the challenges they establish of their communities into alternatives for imaginative drawback fixing and constructive change. By way of drama and dance shows, an exhibition of scholars’ visible artworks and a programme of actions, the gathering is an opportunity for college students to alternate tales, share their hopes for his or her communities and have interaction with views that differ from their very own.
“Younger folks’s hopes and insights are extremely highly effective. This occasion is a celebration not solely of the talents that college students have realized over the previous six months, however of what they’re able to making potential inside their communities,” says Buchi Onyegbule, Narrative 4’s Director of Africa Operations. “These youth leaders are constructing a extra compassionate future for Nigeria, based mostly on collaboration and mutual respect.”
As a part of the programme, 30 Lagos-based lecturers (and a complete of 160 lecturers all through Nigeria) skilled to turn into licensed Narrative 4 facilitators and guided their college students by way of a collection of Story Exchanges, studying useful resource modules and community-building actions. The youth members examined their native environments, recognized key challenges affecting their communities and collaborated on sensible options.
Physician and well being influencer Chinonso Egemba (extensively often called Aproko Physician) mirrored on the ability of tales to heal divides and spark civic motion in his keynote speech on the occasion. Egemba shared: “The sheer vary of artistic concepts on show at at present’s occasion is a reminder {that a} brighter, extra inclusive Nigeria is just not solely potential, however is already being constructed by younger folks throughout the nation.”
Later in November, an extra 600 Kaduna college students and 200 college students based mostly in Abuja will come collectively of their respective cities to pitch extra neighborhood options and have a good time the conclusion of the initiative.
Alongside the programme in Nigeria, the Cities Faculty Programme is working concurrently in Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, constructing a continent-wide community of civically engaged, artistic and tolerant youth leaders. Narrative 4 works in six international locations in Africa, the place 42,808 college students took half in Narrative 4 programmes in 2025. The organisation works in colleges and universities, partaking younger folks in initiatives to make constructive adjustments of their communities.
By way of mentorship and guided artistic programming, the younger folks will proceed growing their artistic management abilities within the coming months. College students within the profitable faculty will start implementing their neighborhood resolution with help from Narrative 4, whereas all taking part colleges now have the coaching framework to proceed fostering pupil confidence and civic company.
