The
Road
Stop by stop, 2005 to today. Keep scrolling.
Dr Kingsley Udo
Peacebuilder. Teacher. Country Director,
International Alert Nigeria.
From a classroom floor in Gwoza to directing national peacebuilding. Two decades keeping children safe and communities from violence, across West and Central Africa.
Gwoza, Borno State
It began on a classroom floor.
“We sat with the learners on the floor and tried teaching them correct pronunciation of English words. Her passion inspired me.”
A volunteer teacher, and children who had escaped Boko Haram captivity. He had studied petroleum engineering and industrial safety. On that floor, the son of two teachers found the family trade.
He went to Maiduguri and trained for four years to become a certified teacher. Then he closed the circle: he paid for the volunteer who inspired him to earn her own Nigeria Certificate in Education.
We sat in the same exam hall in Gwoza during our final year.”
The
2005
Uyo
The work begins with the Justice, Development and Peace Commission and Caritas Nigeria, in the Diocese of Uyo. Development learned the ground-level way.
The field years
Across Nigeria
UNICEF Nigeria. Country Youth Programme Manager at VSO. Then the first Project Manager hired for Plan International's Humanitarian Response Programme in the North East, and humanitarian work with Save the Children UK. This is where the road met the conflict, and where Gwoza happened.
Four years
Maiduguri
A Bachelor of Education at the University of Maiduguri, and a promise kept. After training run by Pratham in Borno, he carried the Teaching at the Right Level approach back to Gwoza, to the very classrooms that had turned him.
By 2022
Cameroon & Sierra Leone
With Street Child: Senior Manager of Programmes, head of the Buea sub-office, later Head of Programmes. Education in emergencies through the Anglophone crisis, and Street2School, teaching street children in Pidgin English.
2025
Abuja
Country Director of International Alert Nigeria. The teacher who sat on a classroom floor in Gwoza now leads national peacebuilding: child protection, community resilience, and programmes that tackle the root causes of conflict across the country.
In the We Go Sabi pilot, 13 teachers were trained, and within seven weeks, 500 children, most of them displaced, climbed at least one level in literacy and numeracy.
September 2025
The classroom
became the country.
For twenty years he kept children safe and learning through Boko Haram, the Anglophone crisis, and displacement across Nigeria, Cameroon and Sierra Leone. At International Alert Nigeria, that same instinct now works at national scale: building peace where conflict has taken root, with governments, communities and young people at the centre.
He directs programmes on justice and dialogue in the North West, climate-driven conflict in Sokoto and Benue, and safe schools nationwide. The fronts are different. The work is the same: resilience, engagement and conflict prevention where banditry, farmer-herder competition, gender-based violence and the scars of captivity still threaten everyday life.
Keeping the peace
Peacebuilding
in practice
As Country Director, he partners with governments, civil society and global institutions to advance inclusive solutions in conflict-affected Nigeria: strengthening safeguarding, supporting mental health and psychosocial recovery, and empowering young people as drivers of peace. International Alert has worked here for over 15 years, from offices in Abuja, Sokoto and Benue. Three fronts from his first year:
Sokoto · November 2025
Justice within reach
A two-day, high-level dialogue on justice sector reform in North West Nigeria: judges, legislators, civil society and traditional leaders at one table, funded by UK FCDO through the SPRiNG programme. The dialogue advanced the Multidoor Courthouse model, with a bill at third reading in Zamfara and campaigns underway in Katsina.
Sokoto & Benue · February 2026
Powering peace through climate action
With the Sokoto State Government, International Alert inaugurated the steering committee for the second phase of Powering Peace through Climate Action, joining climate response to conflict prevention where the two pressures meet.
Abuja · April 2026
Schools without fear
A national stakeholder dialogue on anti-bullying in Nigerian schools, pairing school reporting mechanisms with Youth Peace Clubs. “It is important to note that bullying is not confined to schools; it occurs across all spheres of society: sports, workplaces, and even in leadership spaces.”
The work on film
The stakes,
in their own voices
International Alert's work in northeast Nigeria, told by the women and communities living it. This is the legacy his team carries forward.
More: Arise News on International Alert Nigeria and the SPRiNG programme in northern Nigeria.
Boko Haram survivors tell their own stories · International Alert, 1 min “A teacher in the classroom and a teacher beyond the classroom.”
He envisions a future where resilience and dialogue pave the way for sustainable peace. The boy who wanted to become the best teacher in the world is now a peacebuilder at national scale, still teaching: in courtrooms, in climate committees, in school halls, and in the communities where conflict has done its worst.
The goal has not changed.
The classroom has.
