From Apathy to Action: How a Fellowship Is Reshaping Student Leadership in Nigeria
By Habibat Muhammad Sani
LAFIA, Nigeria — Since turning 18, the age at which Nigerians become eligible to vote, 400-level Mass Communication student Pedi Friday had largely stayed away from politics.
Like many young Nigerians frustrated by economic hardship, corruption and a lack of confidence in political institutions, she saw little reason to participate.
In 2022, Friday began registering for her Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC), but abandoned the process midway.
“I always believed politics was a dirty game,” she said. “I didn’t think my vote would ever count.”
Earlier this year, however, she returned to complete her registration.
She credits a new student-focused initiative, the Roots2Leadership Fellowship, with changing the way she sees politics – and her own role in it.
The fellowship, a project of the Fasasi Youth Foundation under the Gov 360 initiative, was designed to strengthen civic participation and leadership among students in tertiary institutions across Nasarawa State. It is supported by the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF).
Bridging the Gap Between Frustration and Understanding
For founder Fasasi Sadiq, the programme grew out of a disconnect he observed between students’ frustration with poor leadership and their ability to engage with those responsible for making decisions.
“Over time, students demand accountability without clarity,” he said. “We wanted to move them from rage to knowledge.”
Across Nigerian campuses, complaints about poor infrastructure, weak representation and administrative failures are common. But frustration does not always translate into organised participation or effective demands for accountability.
The Roots2Leadership Fellowship seeks to bridge that gap by giving students practical knowledge about leadership, governance, civic responsibility and advocacy.
Its focus comes against the backdrop of Nigeria’s sizeable youth electorate.
Combining INEC’s 2023 voter-register figures with 2026 registration data suggests that young Nigerians now represent roughly half of the country’s expanding electorate. The 18–34 age group accounted for 39.65% of the 93.47 million registered voters in 2023, while young people made up about 67% of new registrants in the 2026 registration exercise.
Using those figures as a broad approximation, young voters could account for about 53% of an electorate now exceeding 100 million registered voters – equivalent to roughly 55 million young voters.
During the 2023 polls, students accounted for 26,027,481 registered voters, or 27.85% of the total register – the largest occupational category recorded by INEC.
Yet numbers alone have not guaranteed political influence.
Pro-democracy groups like Yiaga Africa say youth inclusion and participation remain important democratic challenges. Its Ready To Run initiative, for example, prepares and supports young Nigerians seeking elective office, while its wider programmes aim to move citizens beyond voting towards active participation in governance.
For Fasasi, the challenge is therefore not simply awareness, but capacity.
“Our institutions should be places where destinies are shaped,” he said. “Yet students either support poor leadership or naively conform to it because they don’t know how to engage.”
The fellowship was created to change that by giving students tools they could use beyond the classroom.
From Learning to Leadership
The 2026 fellowship received 122 applications. Fifty students were selected from eight tertiary institutions in Nasarawa State; 47 confirmed their participation, while 24 ultimately completed all the programme requirements, according to the Fasasi Youth Foundation.
Participants worked through 12 modules covering leadership, governance, civic responsibility and accountability. Academics and practitioners facilitated the sessions, with an emphasis on practical engagement.
The organisers also partnered with the Nasarawa Broadcasting Service to launch Civic Voice Radio, extending conversations about governance and civic participation beyond the fellowship cohort.
“We knew learning shouldn’t stop in the classroom,” Fasasi said. “Radio helps us continue the conversation.”
For some participants, the lessons soon moved from theory to action.
Madaki Samson Gajere, a 300-level Mathematics student, had avoided public speaking and showed little interest in politics before joining the fellowship.
“I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like speaking in public,” he said. “During sessions, I preferred typing in the chat box.”
One lesson, however, stayed with him.
“We were told that being present is different from participating,” he said. “That changed something in me.”
A discussion about voting reinforced the idea.
“If your vote hasn’t counted before, does it mean it will never count?” a facilitator asked.
For Gajere, the question became a turning point.
He eventually contested for the position of Faculty President – and won.
“I never imagined myself in campus politics,” he said. “Now I believe I have somewhere to start.”
Another fellow, a medical student at the Federal University of Lafia, contested for the presidency of her faculty association and finished second.
For her, the contest was itself a measure of how far her confidence had grown.
Organisers say other participants have also taken on leadership roles, while some are developing initiatives such as civic labs aimed at promoting accountability within their institutions and communities.
The foundation says the 24 graduating fellows will proceed to the next stage of the programme through Campus2Council.
Rethinking What Leadership Means
The fellowship has also challenged participants to think beyond political office.
Abimiku Esther Hanatu, a postgraduate diploma student in Public Health at Nasarawa State University, said the programme emphasised responsibility over titles.
“Good governance must be centred on transparency and accountability,” she said. “Leadership is not about position – each of us must see ourselves as leaders and hold others accountable.”
Khadija Abubakar Isa said the programme strengthened her ability to engage with governance using evidence.
“I’ve learned data verification, advocacy and how to use evidence to improve public projects,” she said. “This journey has been incredibly impactful.”
For Friday, the lessons extended into her work as a journalist.
For the first time, she reported on politics.
“My boss commended me,” she said. “That was a win for me.”
Her view of politics has changed.
“Politics is responsibility,” she said. “And responsibility without impact is not leadership.”
That shift captures the fellowship’s broader ambition.
Its goal is not necessarily to turn every participant into a politician, but to help young people see governance as something they can influence – as voters, journalists, advocates, community organisers and leaders.
That approach mirrors Yiaga Africa’s emphasis on participation beyond election day. Through Ready To Run, the organisation says it has engaged 1,394 young people across the 2019 and 2023 electoral cycles, with 334 aspirants emerging from its platform and 45 young leaders eventually elected to the National and State Houses of Assembly.
Beyond the Fellowship
At the programme’s closeout ceremony in Keffi, Kenyan lawyer and public intellectual PLO Lumumba urged participants to approach leadership as a responsibility to society rather than a route to personal status.
His message reinforced one of the fellowship’s central ideas: leadership does not begin with occupying political office.
It begins with participation.
For Friday, that participation began with something as simple as completing her voter registration.
For someone who once believed politics was a dirty game and that her vote would never count, the decision represents a significant change.
