By Bernard Otu Assim-Ita
Mariam stood in her school courtyard in Niger State, her hands gripping a handwritten speech. Around her, classmates pinned up recycled posters calling for action against plastic waste. A year ago, she did not know what climate justice meant. Now, she was ready to address local officials about how their community could take responsibility for its environment.
In another part of the country, Esther, a farmer in Benue, looked at her drying fields and remembered how the rains had once come faithfully. These days, they arrive late or not at all. The first time her harvest failed, she thought it was bad luck. Later, through a community meeting, she began to understand the larger picture. “We used to just endure,” she said. “Now, we try to adapt.”
Their stories are connected by the African Activists for Climate Justice project, implemented in Nigeria by Education as a Vaccine through the support of FEMNET. The project began quietly, listening to people who had lived with the effects of a changing climate for years. It was never about experts coming to teach, but about communities discovering their own power.
In schools across Niger, Nasarawa, and Benue, we supported young people in schools towards establishing Climate Justice Clubs. These were not just gatherings; they were small revolutions. Students learned how to document issues, lead clean-up drives, and question why waste bins were missing from their classrooms. In one school, they wrote a simple waste policy that their principal later adopted. That single act of student leadership sparked something larger, a sense that young people could influence how their communities cared for the planet.
For women like Esther, the project created spaces to speak and be heard. In small group meetings under mango trees, farmers compared notes about shrinking water sources and unpredictable seasons. They shared stories of resilience, laughter, and frustration. Out of those discussions came something remarkable: a Feminist Climate Justice Toolkit written in their own words. It was not a manual of theories but a record of lived experience, created so that others could learn how to advocate from the ground up.
The ripple effect spread beyond villages and classrooms. Across the three states, local radio programs began airing community stories about waste pollution, deforestation, and the burden of water scarcity on women and girls. People started to hear themselves reflected in the conversations on air, and that sense of recognition began to shift public understanding.
By the time Nigeria approved a National Plastic Waste Management Policy in 2025, many of those community voices had already helped to shape the conversation. During a town forum in Lafia, Ibrahim, one of the young advocates, said something that stayed with us: “Policy is not just about laws. It is about who those laws remember.”
For us at Education as a Vaccine, this journey has been a lesson in humility and hope. We saw young women stand in front of policymakers and farmers debate adaptation strategies with confidence. We saw that real change begins when people stop waiting for permission to act.
As the project closes, its legacy lives in those who took part. Mariam is now leading a delegation of students to the state assembly to present a proposal on plastic regulation. Esther and her group are testing new irrigation systems. Emmanuel in Nasarawa is mentoring other youth advocates across the states.
Their efforts remind us that climate justice in Nigeria is no longer an abstract idea. It is something real, rooted in community, growing through every act of courage and collaboration. The story of the AACJ project is, at its heart, a story of ordinary people reclaiming power to protect the world they call home.
See our project Documentary Video Here: https://youtu.be/WO87HBTnuYo