Ondo State Police Command has said its men will remain apolitical, impartial, and discharge their duties professionally during and after the October 10 governorship election. Police Commissioner Salami Bolaji gave the assurance when he received a delegation of Yiaga Africa Initiative, who visited him to ascertain the level of police preparedness for the election and...

Yiaga Africa Press Statement on Nasarawa Central State Constituency Bye-Election : Nassarawa bye-election underscores the complexity of safeguarding public health and electoral integrity As a precursor to the upcoming 2020 governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted a bye-election on Saturday, August 8, 2020, in the Nasarawa Central...

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hailed the contribution of Yiaga Africa to credible elections in Nigeria, saying it has observed beyond a reasonable doubt the organization’s role to see improvement in credible elections and citizens’ participation. This was contained in a speech delivered by the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ambassador, Dr. Rufus...

As part of activities marking the pre-election engagement, Yiaga Africa’s Watching The Vote (WTV) project interacted with the media cohort in Edo state, building collaboration on amplifying accurate and timely information before, during and after the Edo Governorship election. The media roundtable held in Benin, Edo state capital, saw the full representatives of broadcast and...

Ahead of the Edo State Governorship elections, Yiaga Africa is set to commence the observation of the pre-election environment including violence monitoring to provide information and recommendation for immediate response by the election stakeholders. This formed major the crux of the discussion during the advocacy visit by the Board and Management of Yiaga Africa’s Watching...

In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Nigeria has introduced several public health and social measures (PHSM). These include the restriction of mass gatherings, closure of schools, inter-state movement restrictions, mandating the wearing of face masks and requirements for physical distancing. However, as the pandemic continues, countries have eased lockdowns and relaxed restrictions in...

The steady decline in voter turnout in Nigeria remains a cause for concern and calls to question the nation’s 21 years of uninterrupted democracy. After six circles of general elections, citizens are yet to trust the electoral system enough to participate in it. This is rightly so because the system is yet to inspire citizens’...

With barely 31 months to the 2023 general elections, the challenges of Nigeria’s electoral process are enormous, and it requires leadership and decisive actions from diverse stakeholders to fix. There has been series of effort to on electoral reforms by the National Assembly and Civil society groups have also proposed amendments to the electoral legal...

On Tuesday, June 30, 2020, civil society groups will host a Live TV and virtual citizens’ townhall on electoral reforms. The townhall is an opportunity for stakeholders to build national consensus on priority issues for electoral reforms through an inclusive and collaborative process. The townhall is hosted by Yiaga Africa and its partners with support...

In a bid to facilitate public debate on the impact of COVID-19 on the upcoming Edo and Ondo Governorship elections, Yiaga Africa and Civil Society partners hosted a citizens townhall to harness citizen input into the INEC policy on elections in the context of COVID-19.  The town hall aired on Channels TV highlighted stakeholders’ perspectives...