YEGO Commends INEC’s 100-Day-to-Elections Readiness, Unveils Early Warning and Rapid Response Mechanism

The Youth Electoral Guards Observers has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission for its preparations and institutional engagements as Nigeria enters the final 100-day countdown to the 2027 General Elections.

In a statement issued in Abuja, the Chairman of the National Stakeholder Steering Committee of YEGO, Blessing Oyefeso, said the group welcomes the Commission’s continued efforts to strengthen electoral risk monitoring, election security, stakeholder engagement and preparedness ahead of the elections. Oyefeso noted that INEC’s deployment of mechanisms such as the Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool reflects the importance of identifying emerging electoral risks early and supporting timely preventive action.

Oyefeso said that as a youth-led citizen observation election intervention, YEGO believes that community-level citizens observation and early warning can complement existing institutional mechanisms and contribute to a more coordinated approach to electoral risk prevention.

The statement announced the unveiling of the Early Warning and Rapid Response Mechanism, a nationwide youth-led citizen observation mechanism designed to identify, monitor, verify and report emerging electoral risks, threats, voter intimidation, disruptions and other incidents that may affect peaceful participation and the integrity of the electoral process.

Oyefeso stated that ERARM will leverage YEGO’s target network of 300,000 Electoral Guards across the country.

Once onboarded and trained, the Electoral Guards will serve as the human face of ERARM at community level, observing, documenting and reporting emerging electoral concerns through established reporting channels.

The mechanism will be supported by the Early Warning and Rapid Response Tool, a digital reporting and incident-management platform designed to enable authorized Electoral Guards and YEGO coordinators to submit, document, verify and track relevant reports.

The YEGO architecture will connect 300,000 Electoral Guards for human observation and community-level reporting, the YEGO-ERARM early warning, verification and coordination mechanism, the YEGO-ERART digital reporting and incident-management platform, and relevant authorities and institutional partners for information-sharing, prevention and appropriate response action.

YEGO emphasized that ERARM is not intended to duplicate or replace INEC’s existing electoral risk-monitoring mechanisms, including EVMAT.

Rather, YEGO will complement and work collaboratively with INEC by providing an organized youth-led citizen-observation network capable of generating structured, community-level information that can contribute to broader electoral risk awareness.

Through the existing YEGO collaboration with security agencies and other institutional partners, YEGO’s work will complement INEC’s efforts of ensuring electoral integrity and credibility of the 2027 elections.

The ERARM model is built around trained citizens who observe, report, verify, share and support preventive action.

Through this approach, Electoral Guards can help provide greater visibility of emerging issues at community level, while relevant authorities and institutional partners retain responsibility for appropriate assessment, prevention and response within their respective mandates.

Oyefeso said that as Nigeria approaches the 2027 General Elections, YEGO believes that electoral preparedness is a shared national responsibility.

The Commission, security agencies, civil society organizations, youth organizations, political stakeholders, traditional and community leaders, the media and citizens all have important roles to play in promoting peaceful participation and protecting the integrity of the electoral process.

YEGO therefore looks forward to further constructive engagement with INEC and relevant institutional partners to ensure that the proposed ERARM framework aligns with existing electoral risk-monitoring and election-security structures and contributes meaningfully to the collective effort toward peaceful, inclusive and credible elections.

“The strength of our democracy depends not only on what happens at the polling unit, but also on our collective ability to identify emerging risks early, share credible information responsibly and support timely preventive action,” Oyefeso said.

YEGO is a flagship electoral intervention initiative of Nigeria Youth Policy Development Advocacy.