Exclusive | Behind Closed Doors: UNESCO REF President in Private Audience with Former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon, GCFR
UNESCO REF Media Centre | Exclusive Report
Away from the cameras, the founder of the National Youth Service Corps and the President of UNESCO REF considered how the institution General Gowon created more than half a century ago could be called to a new national purpose. The full account appears in the February 2027 edition of the UNESCO REF Exclusive Reports.
Exclusive. This is a preview. The complete account of the audience is published in the February 2027 edition of the UNESCO REF Exclusive Reports, available to accredited readers.
ABUJA, Nigeria, 10 October 2026. Some of the most consequential conversations in public life take place in rooms without cameras. In one such room, the President of the Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF), Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan, was received in private audience by General Yakubu Gowon, GCFR, Nigeria’s Head of State from 1966 to 1975 and the founder of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Their conversation turned on a single question: how the institution General Gowon created to bind a nation together might now be called to equip a new generation to feed it.
Global alignmentAlignement mondialThe global commitments this story advances. Open to see how.
- SDG2
SDG 2, Zero Hunger
ProvisionTarget 2.3: double agricultural productivity and the incomes of small-scale producers
How the dialogue respondsPositions corps members as agents of agricultural transformation
- SDG8
SDG 8, Decent Work
ProvisionTarget 8.6: reduce youth not in employment, education or training
How the dialogue respondsSkills and enterprise pathways during and after service
- SDG4
SDG 4, Quality Education
ProvisionTarget 4.4: relevant skills for employment and entrepreneurship
How the dialogue respondsLinks national service to skills development
- SDG16
SDG 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
ProvisionStrong, inclusive institutions and national cohesion
How the dialogue respondsBuilds on the NYSC’s founding mission of national unity
- SDG17
SDG 17, Partnerships
ProvisionTarget 17.17: public and civil society partnerships
How the dialogue respondsEngagement between UNESCO REF and the founder of a national institution
- AU
African Union Agenda 2063
ProvisionAspiration 6: development driven by the potential of African youth
How the dialogue respondsYouth service as a vehicle for national development
- AYC
African Youth Charter
ProvisionYouth participation, education and employment
How the dialogue respondsYoung graduates at the centre of national service and enterprise
The engagement is the subject of “Behind Closed Doors”, the February 2027 edition of the UNESCO REF Exclusive Reports, the series published by the UNESCO REF Editorial Board as the primary diplomatic record of the Federation. This preview sets out the context and the themes of the audience. The complete account is reserved for the edition itself.
A statesman and his institution
Un homme d’État et son institution
Few Nigerians have shaped the institutions of the Federation as lastingly as General Gowon. In 1973, in the aftermath of the civil war, his administration established the National Youth Service Corps, sending young graduates to serve in States other than their own so that a generation might come to know, and belong to, the whole country.
More than five decades later the NYSC endures, present in every State of the Federation and in the Federal Capital Territory, and still a rite of passage for young graduates. In December 2024, in recognition of his contribution to national unity, the Federal Government renamed the University of Abuja in his honour.
The question on the table
La question posée
The audience took up a question that has occupied UNESCO REF in its work with young Nigerians: whether the reach, discipline and national presence of the NYSC can be harnessed for a further national purpose, beyond the civic duty for which it was founded.
UNESCO REF regards each year’s cohort of corps members as a strategic national asset: educated, mobile and present in every community. Directed towards agriculture, enterprise and service delivery, such a cohort could become one of the most effective means available to the nation for advancing food security and the Sustainable Development Goals at the grassroots.
From civic duty to strategic instrument
Du devoir civique à l’instrument stratégique
The conversation drew on work already under way. UNESCO REF engages young graduates through the Young Women in Agriculture (YWA) programme, the GET EDUCATED pathway for youth aged 18 to 35, and the modular water purification pilot inaugurated at the NYSC Federal Capital Territory site under SIP-ALPHA Category 11. Each offers an early indication of what the scheme’s national infrastructure can carry.
To consult the founder of the NYSC on its future was a gesture of respect as much as of strategy. It placed UNESCO REF’s ambitions for young Nigerians within the lineage of an institution built on the conviction that service to the nation is itself a form of education.
Inside the Exclusive Report
Au cœur du Rapport exclusif
The February 2027 edition gives the full account of the audience, prepared under the Editorial Board’s standards for the series. In line with those standards:
- Sourcing. Each account is drawn from a principal or official present at the engagement.
- Verification. Names, offices, places and dates are checked against the institutional record.
- Review. The complete text is reviewed in full by the UNESCO REF Editorial Board before release.
- Distribution. Complete accounts are released to accredited readers with each edition.
Researchers, institutions and members of the press may request access from the Editorial Board at [email protected].
Also in the Exclusive Reports
Également dans les Rapports exclusifs
“Behind Closed Doors” sits within a register of editions documenting the Federation’s engagements with Nigeria’s leaders and traditional institutions, among them:
- The Signature Edition, December 2026: the advocacy visit of Dr Mrs Elizabeth Egbetokun to the Olubadan of Ibadan on Young Women in Agriculture.
- January 2027: Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan on the past, present and future of a national institution.
- March 2027: the private conversations behind the UNESCO REF and POWA 12 Million YWA National Launch.
- May 2027: “Seeds of Policy”, a private audience with Chief Audu Ogbeh on food security and youth development.
How to cite
Comment citer
UNESCO REF Editorial Board, “Behind Closed Doors”, Exclusive Reports, UNESCO REF Media Centre, February 2027, EISSN 3156-5557, Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Read the Exclusive Report. Visit the UNESCO REF Exclusive Reports for the full account and the complete register of editions: unesco-ref.org/execlusive-report.
ENDS
Notes to editorsNotes aux rédactions
About the Exclusive Reports. The Exclusive Reports are the primary diplomatic record of the Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF), published two to four times a year by the UNESCO REF Editorial Board through the UNESCO REF Media Centre (EISSN 3156-5557).
About the NYSC. The National Youth Service Corps was established in 1973 under the administration of General Yakubu Gowon, GCFR to promote national unity and integration through a one-year national service by Nigerian graduates.
About UNESCO REF. The Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF) works to strengthen human and institutional capacity across Nigeria and Africa through education, research and professional development, in alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Media enquiries. UNESCO REF Media Centre, [email protected]