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.

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

ABUJA, Nigeria, 8 November 2022. The Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF) and the Global Learning Exchange™ (GLX), a United States-based education company, are advancing a strategic collaboration for education and skills development in Nigeria. Branded GET EDUCATED, the partnership opens internationally accredited academic programmes, professional certifications and digital skills to young Nigerians, regardless of geography or economic circumstance.

First announced in September 2022 under The August Project (TAP), a UNESCO REF initiative then supported by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Sustainable Development Goals, the collaboration now operates within the UNESCO REF Strategic Intervention Programmes for Accelerated Learning and Productive Human Asset (SIP-ALPHA) and the NEPAD_EY framework, implemented through TAP Category 2.9.

The access gap

Le déficit d’accès

Education is the foundation of sustainable development, social mobility and global competitiveness, yet demand for higher education in Nigeria far exceeds the places available where students most want them. More than 2.24 million candidates registered for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. In 2025, Nigerian tertiary institutions filled about 1.01 million places, with university places, at 74 per cent utilisation, the most heavily contested.

Each year, therefore, more than a million qualified and aspiring young Nigerians are left without a place. GET EDUCATED offers them a credible alternative: internationally accredited study, supported locally, without the need to relocate abroad.

GLX Hubs across the six geopolitical zones

Des centres GLX dans les six zones géopolitiques

The cornerstone of the initiative is a network of GLX Hub facilities across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Each hub provides:

• A modern learning environment. Laptops, high-speed internet and e-libraries.
• Academic guidance and wellbeing. Counselling, career planning and mental health support.
• A path to graduation. A supportive study environment in which participants matriculate and graduate with GLX university partners in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Local employment. Each hub creates jobs for qualified local professionals, who manage operations and provide academic and administrative support. The model builds institutional capacity, creates local ownership and secures sustainability.

Retention and wellbeing. Recognising that education must be holistic, the hubs deliver wraparound services, including career planning, counselling and mental health support, so that participants are prepared academically, personally and professionally.

Knowledge and technology transfer. Structured training and certification programmes localise expertise, build institutional capacity and position Nigeria as a hub for educational innovation in Africa.

The GET EDUCATED pathway

Le parcours GET EDUCATED

GET EDUCATED expresses the institutional commitment of both partners to connect Nigeria’s intellectual capital with global opportunity. The pathway serves young people aged 18 to 35, including National Youth Service Corps members, graduates and young professionals, and provides access to internationally validated programmes.

The result is a pipeline of globally competitive graduates, equipped to contribute to national development and to international collaboration.

A strategic investment in Nigeria’s future

Un investissement stratégique pour l’avenir du Nigéria

The UNESCO REF and GLX partnership is more than an educational programme. It is a strategic investment in Nigeria’s future and in Africa’s transformation. By combining infrastructure, employment, career and wellbeing support and knowledge transfer, the collaboration creates a complete ecosystem for learning and growth, anchored in global good practice and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.

ENDS