Imrana Alhaji Buba is the Founder of the Youth Coalition Against Terrorism (YOCAT), a volunteer-based youth organization working to unite youth against violent extremism through 46 chapters in north-eastern Nigeria. These chapters promote peace education and provide skills training and psycho-social support to young people affected by Boko Haram insurgency. He is also a Generation Change Fellow of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Policy Specialist on CVE and DDR with the Global Alliance of Youth Countering Violent Extremism. As a Generation Change Trainer with the USIP, he facilitated training programs on peacebuilding, leadership, and conflict management for youth leaders from Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, and Morocco.



Imrana received the 2016 Queen’s Young Leaders Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the 2017 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, in recognition of his effort to counter violent extremism in Nigeria. He has been Nigeria’s civil society representative at the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre’s Closed Experts Meetings since 2016, and he was among the experts that developed a ‘Handbook of Good Practices to Assist, Protect and Support Victims of Terrorism’ (2018). He was a speaker/ panelist at the United Nation’s 2018 International Youth Day event at the UN Headquarters, and the key highlight of his speech was the need to empower youth in developing countries to break the cycle of conflict, violence, and terror.



Imrana holds a BSc in Political Science from the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and a MSc in Africa and International Development from the University of Edinburgh, UK.