Nigerian educational statistics reflect a country in crisis. Several factors drive this trend: early marriages; poorly-trained and underpaid teachers; and extensive armed conflicts. This paper describes a collaboration between three universities on a [removed for peer review] grant-funded project to intervene in this crisis. Focusing on the educational system in two states, the project aims to improve educational materials and teaching strategies in 200 schools. Our research team employs a codesign methodology informed by the "co-creation" work of Dr. Elizabeth Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers (2008), Dr. Allison Druin's (1999, 2002, 2005) work on "cooperative inquiry," and by Martens, Rinnert, and Andersen's (2018)'s work on child-centered design. The participants provided the research team with personal perspectives through the creation of personas. This paper presents the results, and how we interpreted and analyzed the study. Our goal was to better understand the educational needs, community and people of Adamawa and Gombe states.