The Future Pathways Development Initiative (FPDI) today concluded the second edition of the Policy Conference for Youth 2026 at the KAAF Auditorium, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, with approximately 300 delegates in attendance and viewers joining the live stream from across Nigeria and beyond. The conference, themed Rebuilding Trust in The Nigerian State, ran from 9:00 AM to 3:40 PM and delivered six hours of policy debate, legislative simulation, and youth-led governance reform.
The day’s centrepiece was the Policy Challenge Finals, where three finalist teams selected from 322 submissions and 1,371 expressions of interest across 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states defended their reform proposals before a live panel of expert judges. At the close of the conference, Team SMETrust was announced as the 2026 Policy Challenge Grand Prize winner, receiving ₦2,000,000 for their proposal on rebuilding trust in Nigeria’s tax system through a National SME Digital Compliance Interface. Team Astrum placed first runner-up, receiving ₦1,000,000 for their work on fixing Nigeria’s electricity sector through three institutional reforms. Team Nikao placed second runner-up, receiving ₦750,000 for their proposal on closing the gap between the motto and reality of the Nigerian Police Force. Beyond the prize money, all three winning teams will receive pathways into paid policy internships and continued engagement within FPDI’s network of policy practitioners and governance reform professionals.
Ayokunnu Ojeniyi, Founder and Executive Director of FPDI, said the results reflected a generation that had moved beyond frustration into action. “We are angry but we have not been able to channel this anger meaningfully to the people in government. The Policy Challenge exists to change that. Without getting policy right, the hope of having a better system is broken. These young Nigerians are getting policy right.”
The conference opened with a theatre performance that set the emotional frame for the day before moving into a keynote address by Hon. Seyi Adisa, Founder of the African Governance Institute for Development. Adisa challenged delegates to rethink what trust between citizens and government actually means, arguing that performance alone is not enough. “A government can win on performance and still be distrusted. A win not felt by everyone is a win for no one.” He introduced a framework of five trust accounts that citizens keep with government, covering fairness, integrity, identity, communication, and honesty, and called on young Nigerians to replace persuasion with proof in every institution they enter.
A panel discussion titled “Real Talk: Rebuilding Trust in The Nigerian State,” moderated by Gloria Babarinde, followed, bringing four voices into direct, unscripted debate over the legitimacy deficit facing Nigerian institutions. The Founder’s Session with Ayokunnu Ojeniyi converted that debate into direction, before the Policy Challenge Finals brought the day’s intellectual energy to its most competitive moment.
The afternoon opened with a fireside chat between Arinola Daniel and Mr. Khalil Nur Khalil, Economic Adviser to the Katsina State Government, exploring institutional trust at its most human scale under the session title “The Smallest Unit of Trust.” A 60-minute Model National Assembly Session facilitated by the Centre for Governance Development followed, in which delegates participated directly in a live legislative process rather than observing one. SpotOn talks from Daniel Otabor, Arinola Daniel, and Adebayo Akande closed the substantive programme before the awards ceremony brought the day to its conclusion.
Arinola Daniel, Executive Director of FPDI, said the reach of this year’s competition was as telling as the quality of what was produced. “Policy defines power, and leadership shapes how that power is used. When young Nigerians from 33 states sit down to research, write, and defend reform proposals, that is not just participation. That is the beginning of the end of apathy.”
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The decision to relocate the conference from Abuja, which hosted the inaugural 2025 edition, to the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest university, was a deliberate signal of FPDI’s commitment to taking the national policy conversation beyond the capital and closer to the young people most affected by its outcomes. The 2026 Policy Challenge Compendium, collecting the strongest proposals from this year’s competition, is now available at and will be distributed to government officials, development partners, and media organisations as a formal record of what Nigeria’s next generation of policy thinkers is proposing.
Planning for the 2027 edition of the Policy Conference for Youth is already underway.
The Future Pathways Development Initiative is a Nigerian public policy and governance organisation headquartered in Abuja. FPDI advances governance reform by equipping young people, civic actors, and institutions with the tools to engage meaningfully in policymaking. Its programmes have reached students across all six of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones and 67 tertiary institutions nationwide.
