By Emmanuel Oloniruha
The Nigeria Youths in Politics (NiYP) says it has developed a nationwide framework to engage over 300,000 young Nigerians to foster a culture of electoral vigilance to safeguard the integrity of 2027 general elections.
The Chief Executive Officer of NiYP, a political pressure group, Blessing Oyefeso, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Oyefeso explained that the initiative, tagged Youth Electoral Guards Observer (YEGO), was developed by NiYP in collaboration with key partner organisations.
According to him, the coalition includes the Youth-Action for Electoral Accountability and Partnership Alliance (YEAPA), the Nigeria Youth Policy Development Advocacy (NYPDA), and other strategic partners.
He stated that through the YEGO project, 50,000 young Nigerians would be directly recruited, trained and deployed as electoral master trainers and frontline civic actors across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Beyond this core network, YEGO is projected to engage more than three million young Nigerians across more than 170,000 polling units,” Oyefeso said.
He added that beneficiaries of the programme would be trained to promote peaceful and lawful electoral participation within their communities; resist and discourage electoral violence, intimidation and other harmful practices.
Oyefeso said that the beneficiaries would also observe and document electoral incidents through the YEGO platform; report credible incidents electoral malpractices to the authorised channels.
“The beneficiaries will also be trained to follow the counting, collation and other stages of the electoral process; support community-level early-warning and violence-prevention mechanisms.
“To share relevant information responsibly with appropriate electoral and security institutions, subject to applicable laws and protocols and to remain engaged in post-election accountability and democratic participation,’’ he said.
Oyefeso noted that lessons gathered from observing previous off-cycle elections, such as the Osun governorship election, provided valuable practical insights that helped refine and prepare the YEGO framework for nationwide deployment.
He stressed that the objective of YEGO was not to create parallel security structures or replace state institutions.
Rather, he said that it sought to establish a responsible, citizen-led support architecture to strengthen communication, vigilance and incident reporting in collaboration with established electoral and security agencies within applicable laws and protocols.
“The scale of Nigeria’s electoral landscape demands a coordinated approach to forestall potential large-scale electoral violence.
“With more than 170,000 polling units nationwide, protecting the integrity of elections cannot be left exclusively to institutions operating strictly on the election days,” Oyefeso stated.
He added that moving from passive voting to organised civic responsibility would help safeguard the country’s democratic process before, during, and after the ballot.
Oyefeso called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies, civil society organisations, development partners, traditional institutions and the general public to collaborate with the group to transform Nigeria’s electoral trajectory for the greater good.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)