In a room buzzing with energy, accents from across West Africa bounced off the walls. From Sierra Leone’s gentle sing-song to Ghana’s British-infused diction, the 12th edition of Yiaga Africa’s Community Organizing Institute (COI) felt less like a conference and more like a reunion of destiny-shapers.
This wasn’t just any gathering. It was a convergence of 27 courageous, purpose-driven leaders selected from nearly 800 applicants across West Africa, each one carrying with them stories of resilience, reform, and a relentless love for their communities. They came from Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, not just to talk, but to build. And oh, did we build.
At Yiaga Africa, we’ve always believed that democracy isn’t something you watch unfold on TV every four years. It’s something you organize, practice, protect, and yes, teach. With support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the COI (formerly known as the Youth Organizing School) has become one of West Africa’s most impactful capacity development programs, sharpening the skills of mid-career civic actors and movement builders who are often navigating treacherous political terrain in fragile democracies.
In just 3 days in Abuja, we unpacked big topics: organizing under threat, building power without money, turning movements into policy, and perhaps most importantly, learning to fail forward. As Cynthia Mbamalu, Yiaga Africa’s Director of Programmes, put it: “Leadership is doing. Not tweeting, not waiting, not complaining, but simply doing.”
From climate action to girls’ education, mental health advocacy to electoral reforms, each participant brought a unique cause close to their hearts. Yet, they all left with one shared conviction: leadership is not positional, it’s personal. As Ibrahim Faruk, Yiaga Africa’s Programme Coordinator, reminded everyone, “You don’t need a title to take responsibility. You need a vision and a plan.” Add a little COI magic, and you’ve got a leader in the making.
Our COI alumni network is now over 400 strong, a pan-African alliance of movers, dreamers, and doers. These aren’t just “activists” in the casual sense. They are elected officials, human rights defenders, youth advocates, lawyers, campaigners, and community trailblazers, many of them women, and many already rewriting what leadership looks like in their countries.
Take Ibrahim Serayjah from Sierra Leone. After COI, he’s thinking bigger: “I want to lead my people in the future,” he told us. Meanwhile, Nigerian mental health advocate Rosemary Ochiwu is rethinking her strategy: “Leadership is enabling others to act. Now, I’m rebuilding my movement with clearer communication and stronger partnerships.” These stories aren’t outliers, they’re the COI-standard.
What makes the COI different? We don’t just hand out certificates, we hand out tools. We provide mentorship, strategies, and a ready-made network of allies who will send you WhatsApp messages at midnight with encouragement, or a full campaign toolkit.
As we delved into the training deeper, we threw in some tough love, because let’s face it, democracy work isn’t glamorous. You’ll face opposition, indifference, even threats. But as Sanusi Olaniyan, Programs Officer at Yiaga Africa, reminded the room: “A real leader kicks the ball, even if they’re not sure they’ll score.”
As these 27 organizers return to their respective countries, they carry more than knowledge, they carry momentum. We expect big things. Actually, we demand big things. Because when you’ve seen what we’ve seen, the brilliance, the passion, the fire in those training rooms, you know that the future of West Africa isn’t bleak. It’s just under construction, and these leaders are holding the blueprint?
