YiAGA Africa Begins Nationwide Training Ahead of 2027 Elections, Targets 3,000 Observers

YiAGA Africa has commenced nationwide preparations for the 2027 general elections, with plans to deploy more than 3,000 observers and activate 774 long-term observers across Nigeria’s local government areas.

Executive Director of YiAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, disclosed this in Abuja during a two-day national training for State Focal Persons (SFPs) and trainers on WatchingTheVote (WTV), Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology, pre-election observation and observer recruitment.

Itodo said the training was designed to build the capacity of state focal persons who would subsequently cascade the training to other observers across the 36 states of the federation.

He explained that YiAGA Africa’s PVT methodology requires extensive training because election observation is a systematic and highly technical exercise.

According to him, the organisation plans to conduct more than 130 different training sessions ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“Election observation isn’t a tea party. It’s a very systematic, highly technical exercise that requires investment in capacity building,” Itodo said.

He said the state focal persons were being trained on the principles behind PVT, the electoral rules, the Electoral Act, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines and new procedures introduced ahead of the 2027 elections.

Itodo added that the training also covers stakeholder engagement, security, observer recruitment and pre-election observation.

He said YiAGA Africa would activate 774 local government supervisors who would serve as long-term observers to monitor political developments, campaigns and other activities at the grassroots.

The Executive Director said the deployment would enable the organisation to provide a national assessment of the pre-election environment, including whether the environment was conducive for political campaigns, the preparedness of INEC and the management of electoral logistics.

He also said YiAGA Africa would monitor the conduct of security agencies, conflicts and the use of incumbency during the electoral process.

According to him, attention must not be restricted to election-day activities, stressing that the credibility of an election depends largely on the integrity of the processes leading to the polls.

“A compromised process cannot produce a credible outcome. Only a credible process can produce a credible outcome, but compromised processes always produce compromised outcomes,” he said.

Also speaking, YiAGA Africa Director of Programmes, Cynthia Mbamalu, said the training marked the official launch of the organisation’s national deployment for the 2027 elections.

Mbamalu said 42 WatchingTheVote trainers were being equipped to conduct training at the state level, while the organisation would recruit more than 3,000 observers for its PVT deployment.

She explained that recruitment would begin with state coordinators, who would return to their respective states to recruit local government supervisors responsible for coordinating observers.

According to her, 774 long-term observers would be deployed to monitor the pre-election environment from the local government level.

She said the observers would monitor political party campaigns, INEC preparations and voter education activities, while also tracking incidents of electoral violence.

Mbamalu said the violence-monitoring component was designed to establish an early-warning and preventive mechanism capable of helping security agencies address threats before they escalate.

She said the observers would commence training from September 1, after which they would begin monitoring developments across the states.

“Coming from the last election, where we had a lot of incidents of pre-election violence, we want to ensure that as an organisation, we’re tracking the incidents at the local government level and sharing our findings with the security agencies to ensure that those issues are addressed ahead of elections,” she said.

Mbamalu said YiAGA Africa’s objective for the 2027 elections was to promote a transparent and peaceful electoral process capable of inspiring citizens’ confidence in election outcomes.

On the verification of election results, she said Nigeria’s detailed results-management system was partly a response to longstanding concerns about public trust in electoral outcomes.

She noted that INEC had introduced an electronic result form as part of the new procedures, but urged the commission to provide greater clarity on how the validation process would work.

According to her, transparency requires citizens, the media and other stakeholders to understand what happens to election results both at the polling unit and at the backend of the results-management system.

She stressed that voters should be able to verify that the results recorded at polling units are the same results transmitted and eventually used during collation.

The Kano State Focal Person, Maryam Garba Usman, said the training had strengthened the understanding of state focal persons regarding their roles as voter-education advocates and champions of peaceful democratic participation.

She said YiAGA Africa would intensify voter education to counter the growing perception among some Nigerians that their votes do not count.

Usman urged citizens to evaluate candidates based on their records, promises and performance rather than party affiliation alone.

She also encouraged voters to hold elected representatives accountable and exercise their democratic rights when representatives fail to deliver on their mandates.

The training is supported under the European Union-supported Support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria (SDGN) project, is expected to strengthen YiAGA Africa’s nationwide election observation structure ahead of the 2027 general elections.