Nigeria
Nigeria’s challenges have intensified over the past decade, constraining governance capacity and deepening public distrust in institutions. As Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria’s stability is of strategic importance for the region and U.S. economic cooperation. Active in Nigeria since 2015, the U.S. Institute of Peace supports officials and partners in their efforts to prevent the spread of the violent Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, strengthen state-level peacebuilding institutions to better connect citizens and decisionmakers, and connect business leaders with peace actors to bolster private sector engagement, while providing strategies for how the U.S. can advance regional peace and security.
Learn more in USIP’s fact sheet on The Current Situation in Nigeria.
Featured Research & Analysis
In Nigeria’s Plateau State, Communal Violence Requires a Locally Led Solution
Starting in late December 2023, vicious and indiscriminate violence broke out in the Mangu local government area in Plateau State, Nigeria among the area’s farming and pastoral communities. By the time the attacks stopped in mid-February 2024, reports indicated that 865 people, including 160 children, had been brutally killed.
Nigeria at a Crossroads: Navigating Protests Amid Elections
Nigerians marked their 64th independence day on October 1 with widespread protests fueled by growing public anger over soaring inflation, worsening insecurity, ineffective governance and rising fuel prices. This marks the second time in less than three months that citizens have taken to the streets. In August, during the “10 Days of Rage,” the appearance of Russian flags and calls for military intervention distracted from Nigeria’s entrenched governance and economic crises — issues that continue to drive insecurity and demand urgent government action. The latest protests coincide with local elections, heightening pressure on the government to demonstrate a genuine commitment to addressing citizens’ concerns in a tangible, meaningful way.
Stability in West Africa: Working With Nigeria’s State Governments
As coups and other setbacks have stymied military-led efforts to stem upheavals in West Africa and the Sahel, a potent new constituency of leaders has just gathered to plan nonviolent strategies to stabilize their own core area of the region: northern Nigeria. In West Africa’s demographic giant, economic crisis is exacerbating intercommunal conflicts, crime and other violence — and Nigeria’s federalism gives vital roles to its states in addressing roots of these problems. Ten recently elected state governors gathered in Washington last month with peacebuilding and development experts, business leaders and senior U.S. officials; they resolved to strengthen and coordinate state-level stabilization strategies — an initiative that international partners should support.
Current Projects
Generation Change Fellows Program
Generation Change works with young leaders across the globe to foster collaboration, build resilience and strengthen capacity as they transform local communities.
Network of Nigerian Facilitators
The Network of Nigerian Facilitators (NNF) is a group of professional peace mediators trained and advised by USIP to mitigate and resolve local conflicts through nonviolent means in Nigeria. Since 2018, USIP has supported the NNF with the aim of preventing conflicts from escalating beyond the community level by piloting dialogue-based approaches and connecting local peacebuilders with policymakers to inform government responses to conflicts.
Justice and Security Dialogues
In countries of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, USIP has pioneered a method to bring state officials, community leaders and citizens together to work out the roots of their problems and cooperatively rebuild security.