Reported Simon Daniel Yusuph l journalist at wengglobal
More than 120 young people have taken part in the BetterME Tournament in Ibadan, Oyo State, in an initiative designed to promote personal development, positive habits, leadership and peacebuilding among young Nigerians.
The tournament, which uses structured challenges and learning activities to encourage participants to examine their habits, mindset and personal goals, forms part of the wider BetterME movement promoted by the World Peace Initiative Foundation (WPI) through its network of Peace Clubs.
The Ibadan programme is part of a growing series of BetterME activities across Africa, where youth-focused organisations are increasingly exploring approaches that combine personal development with peace education, emotional resilience and community leadership.
The initiative is built around a simple proposition: sustainable social change can begin with individual transformation. Rather than focusing exclusively on external problems, participants are encouraged to examine how their own attitudes, decisions and daily habits influence their relationships, productivity and communities.
The latest tournament in Ibadan therefore provided a platform for young participants to compete, learn and reflect while developing practical skills that can be applied beyond the event.
The World Peace Initiative Foundation describes its wider mission as promoting sustainable change through individual self-development and providing accessible tools for empowerment and wellbeing.
From Competition to Personal Development
Although described as a tournament, BetterME is structured differently from conventional sporting or academic competitions.
The emphasis is on challenges that test participants’ understanding of personal development principles, self-awareness, discipline, mindset and positive behaviour.
The competitive format provides an additional incentive for young people to engage seriously with the material while allowing participants to measure their progress against peers.
For organisers, the approach is intended to make personal development more interactive and accessible, particularly among young people who may not ordinarily participate in conventional leadership or peacebuilding programmes.
The concept is consistent with the BetterME model promoted by WPI, which places individual development at the centre of wider social transformation.
WPI’s Peace Club guidelines identify the BetterME Tournament as one of the organisation’s flagship activities, designed for university students, professionals and members of the public.
The model therefore goes beyond a one-day competition. It is part of a broader programme through which Peace Clubs seek to create opportunities for learning, self-reflection, leadership development and peaceful engagement.
Why Youth Development Matters
Nigeria’s large and growing youth population presents both an opportunity and a major policy challenge.
Young Nigerians constitute a significant proportion of the country’s population and remain central to conversations about employment, entrepreneurship, education, innovation, governance and social stability.
However, personal development programmes often receive less attention than conventional academic and vocational training.
While technical and professional skills are essential for employability, employers, community organisations and development institutions increasingly recognise the importance of communication, emotional intelligence, resilience, discipline, teamwork and leadership.
Programmes such as BetterME seek to address some of those areas by encouraging participants to develop the personal qualities required to navigate complex social and professional environments.
The emphasis on positive habits is particularly relevant.
Habits influence how individuals manage time, respond to pressure, interact with others and pursue long-term goals. Helping young people identify unproductive patterns and replace them with healthier behaviours can potentially contribute to improved individual and community outcomes.
However, such programmes are not substitutes for broader structural interventions.
Youth development requires a combination of quality education, access to decent work, entrepreneurship opportunities, healthcare, social protection and meaningful participation in decision-making.
Personal development can complement these interventions by strengthening the capacity of young people to make use of available opportunities.
Peacebuilding Starts With the Individual
One of the distinctive features of the BetterME initiative is its connection between personal development and peacebuilding.
The philosophy behind the programme is that peaceful communities are easier to build when individuals develop self-awareness, emotional control and constructive approaches to conflict.
This perspective places responsibility for peacebuilding partly at the individual level.
Rather than treating peace exclusively as a matter for governments, security agencies or international organisations, the programme encourages young people to consider their own roles in creating peaceful relationships and communities.
That approach is reflected across WPI’s activities.
In July 2026, the Ibadan and Abeokuta Peace Clubs jointly organised a two-day Empowerment Boot Camp that brought together 25 young leaders for training in mindfulness, personal development and leadership. The programme was led by Dr Olutomiwa Binuyo and Adeoye Aderogba.
The boot camp illustrates the broader ecosystem around BetterME and related WPI programmes in Nigeria.
Instead of treating individual events as isolated activities, the organisation is developing a network of young people exposed to personal growth, peace leadership and community engagement programmes.
Ibadan’s Growing Role
Ibadan has become an important location for youth-focused peacebuilding and personal development initiatives associated with the World Peace Initiative.
The Ibadan Peace Club previously organised the BetterME Forum at the University of Ibadan in September 2025, attracting more than 700 participants, including students, youth leaders, corps members, lecturers, NGO representatives and development partners.
The forum was held under the theme “Peace is Personal: Becoming Better in a Broken System.”
The event featured keynote presentations, panel discussions and activities focused on leadership, self-development and peaceful living.
The University of Ibadan’s Union of Campus Journalists also reported that the 2025 forum brought together participants from different backgrounds and featured discussions around leadership, youth development and sustainable models for progress.
The continued activities in Ibadan suggest that the city is emerging as one of the locations where the BetterME philosophy is being developed and introduced to young Nigerians.
For a city with a major student population and a long history as an educational and intellectual centre, such programmes have the potential to reach diverse groups of young people.
A Growing African Movement
The Ibadan tournament is also part of a broader African expansion of BetterME activities.
The World Peace Initiative has reported BetterME tournaments in several African countries during 2026.
In June, the Ilorin Peace Club of Nigeria hosted a BetterME Tournament that brought together participants from different backgrounds and focused on youth leadership, community development and peacebuilding.
WPI described the Ilorin event as the second BetterME Tournament organised by its Peace Clubs in Africa and said additional editions were expected in other African countries.
In May, the Porto-Novo Peace Club in Benin hosted what WPI described as the first BetterME Tournament in Porto-Novo, while subsequent activities included workshops focused on personal and professional development.
More recently, the Labé Peace Club in Guinea organised a BetterME Tournament on August 2, 2026, attracting more than 80 participants for a day focused on learning, self-development and peaceful engagement.
The Abeokuta Peace Club also hosted a BetterME Tournament on July 25, with WPI reporting more than 90 participants.
These activities indicate that the model is gradually developing into a regional youth-development platform rather than remaining confined to one location.
Beyond Certificates and Competition
For participants, the immediate attraction of a tournament may include competition, recognition and the possibility of prizes.
But organisers and partners place greater emphasis on what happens after the event.
The central question is whether participants can translate lessons from the tournament into everyday behaviour.
That could include better time management, improved communication, stronger self-discipline, healthier responses to disagreement and a greater willingness to contribute positively to their communities.
The sustainability of any youth-development initiative should ultimately be measured by such outcomes rather than attendance figures alone.
A large turnout can demonstrate interest, but long-term impact requires continued engagement and opportunities for participants to apply what they have learned.
This is where Peace Clubs and follow-up programmes become important.
The World Peace Initiative’s broader structure includes workshops, boot camps, meditation sessions and other activities designed to maintain engagement with participants beyond individual events.
The Role of Mindfulness and Self-Awareness
Mindfulness is another recurring component of WPI’s approach.
The organisation’s programmes combine meditation and self-development with leadership and peace education.
The 2025 BetterME Forum in Ibadan, for example, included a collective meditation session alongside lectures and panel discussions. The Peace Revolution blog reported that the session was used to introduce participants to the BetterME Model and the idea of cultivating inner peace as part of broader social transformation.
The approach reflects the organisation’s belief that emotional and mental awareness can contribute to healthier decision-making and relationships.
For young people navigating academic pressure, unemployment concerns, social expectations and uncertainty about the future, such tools can offer practical methods for managing stress and maintaining focus.
At the same time, responsible reporting requires recognising that personal-development approaches should complement rather than replace professional mental-health services or government-supported youth programmes where those are needed.
Partnerships and Community Engagement
The success of youth initiatives frequently depends on partnerships between community organisations, educational institutions, development agencies and volunteers.
The previous BetterME Forum in Ibadan involved the World Peace Initiative Foundation alongside several partners, including the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, Generation Unlimited 9ja, the National Youth Service Corps and The Sapphires Development Initiative.
Such partnerships provide access to wider networks of young people and create opportunities for collaboration.
They can also help organisations share resources, expertise and communication platforms.
For BetterME, partnerships are particularly important because the initiative seeks to reach beyond existing Peace Club members and engage a wider youth population.
The Bigger Nigerian Context
Nigeria’s youth-development challenge cannot be separated from broader economic and social realities.
Young Nigerians continue to face challenges involving access to quality education, employment, entrepreneurship finance and opportunities for meaningful participation in public life.
Against this background, initiatives that strengthen personal responsibility and leadership can play a useful supporting role.
However, the responsibility for youth development cannot rest solely on young people themselves.
Governments, educational institutions, businesses, civil society organisations and international development partners all have roles to play in creating an environment where young Nigerians can convert personal capacity into economic and social opportunity.
A young person may develop strong leadership skills, for example, but still require access to education, employment, capital or institutional support to translate those skills into measurable impact.
That broader perspective is essential to avoid framing youth challenges simply as individual failures.
Wengglobal Perspective
The BetterME Tournament in Ibadan offers an example of how youth development and peacebuilding can be connected through practical personal-development activities.
With more than 120 young people reportedly participating, the initiative demonstrates continuing interest among Nigerian youths in programmes that combine competition, learning, leadership and self-improvement.
Its significance extends beyond the tournament itself.
The growing network of BetterME activities across Nigeria and other African countries suggests an expanding effort to make personal development part of grassroots peacebuilding.
For wengglobal, the most important measure of the initiative will be its long-term impact.
The real value of the programme will not be determined simply by how many youths attend, compete or receive certificates. It will depend on whether participants adopt constructive habits, strengthen their leadership capacity and use what they learn to improve their communities.
The tournament also highlights a broader point about peacebuilding: social stability is not created only through laws, security operations or political agreements.
It is also shaped by the daily decisions individuals make — how they handle disagreements, treat others, respond to pressure and participate in their communities.
That makes youth personal development an important component of the wider peacebuilding conversation.
The continued expansion of BetterME tournaments from Nigeria to other African countries could provide a useful platform for connecting young people around shared values of self-awareness, responsible leadership and peaceful coexistence.
But maintaining credibility will require clear evidence of outcomes, transparent reporting of participation and prizes, sustained engagement with beneficiaries and continued collaboration with credible educational and development institutions.
As Africa’s youthful population continues to grow, investments in leadership, skills and peaceful citizenship will remain increasingly important.
The BetterME experience in Ibadan represents one contribution to that broader effort — one that places personal transformation at the centre of a wider ambition to build stronger individuals and, ultimately, more peaceful communities.
Sources
- World Peace Initiative Foundation — official Peace Club activities and BetterME programme information.
- World Peace Initiative Foundation — updates on the 2026 BetterME tournaments and youth peacebuilding activities across Africa.
- Vanguard — report on the 2025 BetterME Forum in Ibadan and its youth-development focus.
- Peace Revolution / World Peace Initiative — report on the 2025 BetterME Forum and its personal-development and inner-peace activities.
- Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ibadan — report on the BetterME Forum hosted at the University of Ibadan.
