Fr. Atta Barkindo is the Executive Director of The Kukah Centre and Head of Secretariat, National Peace Committee. He is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Yola.
In August 2007, Fr. Atta proceeded to the Dar Comboni Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Zamalek, Egypt, where he obtained his BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 2009, he was accepted at the Pontifical University for Arabic and Islamic Studies, PISAI, Rome, Italy, where he graduated with a Licentiate Degree in Political Islam and Inter-Religious Dialogue in 2011. Fr. Atta enrolled for his MSc in African Politics in 2012 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS, University of London, and in 2016 he completed his PhD at the same University. His PhD research project, titled ‘History, Memory and Resistance in Northern Nigeria: The Transformation of Boko Haram’, was awarded the Horowitz Foundation grant for Social Policy.
Fr. Atta specialised in Deradicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Violent Extremists at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Singapore. In November 2014, Fr. Atta became a part of the European Union Technical Assistance Team that worked with the Office of the National Security Adviser to establish the DDRR programme in Nigeria. He is also a consultant for Conciliation Resources, conducting research to highlight community perspectives, concerns and initiatives on issues of reconciliation and reintegration in the Northeast. In August 2020, Fr. Atta led a team of researchers from the United Nations Development Programme Borderlands Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, to provide up to date actor mapping of the activities of Boko Haram factions around the Lake Chad Basin. In October 2020, Fr. Atta was selected by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to develop a roadmap on transitional justice in Nigeria.
He is also Research Fellow for Open Doors International, Netherlands, the World Watch Monitor, UK, and Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict, University of South Florida. Fr. Atta is a member of the Board of Trustees, Africa Research Institute, London. He has authored books, technical reports and policy documents, one of which is Boko Haram’s Exploitation of History and Memory. In January 2018, he was appointed the Executive Director of The Kukah Centre, and in August of the same year, he was made the Head of Secretariat, National Peace Committee. He works directly with General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar and Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Chairman and Convener of the Peace Committee respectively, to facilitate peaceful elections and transition in Nigeria.