CPSS trains 300 volunteers to monitor  2027 general elections

By Mustafa Abubakar

The Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS), University of Ilorin, has commenced a major election monitoring initiative ahead of the 2027 general elections, with the training of 300 volunteers to monitor and analyse political and electoral developments that could affect the credibility, peace and inclusiveness of the 2027 polls.

The initiative, known as #TrackingNaijaElection2027, is being implemented in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Development of African Media, Governance and Society (CEREDEMS), under the Nigeria Electoral Integrity & Peace Initiative (NEIPI), 2027. The volunteers were formally onboarded during a pre-deployment workshop and orientation held on Monday, August 17, 2026 at the Innovation Hub of the University.

The workshop equipped participants with skills to source, document, monitor and analyse election, political and campaign information.

Speaking on the initiative, the Director of CPSS, Prof. Abdul-Jelil Gbemisola Animasawun, said elections and other matters of public interest had remained important areas of intellectual engagement for the Centre.

He described CPSS as a centre of excellence in peace research that operates around intellectual rigour, strategic partnerships and community engagement, making electoral issues particularly relevant to its mandate.

Prof. Animasawun said the Centre had already begun preparing the intellectual and strategic ground for the 2027 elections through its “Guest Speaker Series for Setting the Agenda for Peaceful & Credible 2027 Elections.”

He noted that the first edition of the series was held on June 11, 2026, with the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) serving as the first speaker.

He further described the collaboration with CEREDEMS as strategic and timely, saying the partnership would bring together peace research, electoral monitoring, data analysis and strategic engagement around the 2027 electoral process.

Prof. Animasawun said the decision of the CPSS to house the #Naija2027Elections Situation Room with its partners represented a continuation of the  commitment to democratic consolidation and sustainable peace by the Centre.

“For us at the CPSS, housing the #Naija2027Elections Situation Room in collaboration with our partners marks a deliberate furtherance of our commitment to consolidation of democracy and sustainable peace,” he said.

He stressed that safeguarding the electoral process required sustained attention and collective responsibility rather than interventions limited to the period immediately before or after an election.

He called on individuals and organisations that shared the vision of protecting the electoral process and advancing peace and democracy to join the initiative as collaborators.

Following the workshop, the volunteers were divided into clusters and assigned specific responsibilities, with deployment commencing on Tuesday, August 20.

Two lead facilitators were selected in each group to coordinate activities and strengthen collaboration among members.

Leading a session on “Tools for Sourcing and Documenting Election, Political and Campaign Data,” the Head of the Department of Mass Communication, Prof. Abdulrasaq Adisa, explained how systematically collected information could contribute to credible and transparent elections, electoral accountability and evidence-based policymaking.

Also, the Executive Director of CEREDEMS, Dr Mustapha Muhammed Jamiu, said the initiative represented a continuation of the  election monitoring efforts by the Organisation during the 2023 general elections.

He said the previous project focused primarily on information pollution and produced a report, titled “Multidimensionality of Toxic Election Campaigns: A Critical Analysis of 2023 Nigerian Presidential Election.”

Dr Jamiu said the new initiative was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy by collecting and analysing relevant electoral data and transforming the findings into useful information for democratic stakeholders.

According to him, the 2027 project has a broader mandate, focusing on six major areas: information integrity, electoral governance, electoral security, electoral justice and peace, artificial intelligence and elections, and inclusive participation.

He disclosed that further capacity building took place on Saturday, August 29, 2026, when the volunteers participated in a virtual masterclass, titled “Understanding Frameworks and Indices of Monitoring Nigeria’s 2027 Elections.”

The Director of Research and Strategy, Mr Mutiu Iyanda, also conducted virtual training sessions to clarify the responsibilities of the various teams and guide them in carrying out their assignments.

In his remarks, Mr Iyanda urged the volunteers to take their responsibilities seriously, maintain confidentiality and focus on transforming raw data into useful democratic insights. He said the monitoring would focus on information obtained from verified Nigerian news outlets and relevant social media sources.

He also introduced participants to the project’s three-stage information refinery: evidence, action and learning, through which data would be tracked, cleaned, organised, analysed, coded and visualised before being transformed into written insights.

One of the group leaders in the Electoral Justice and Peace (EJP) group, Alonge Sunday Temitope, said the initiative offered an opportunity to apply a stronger data-driven approach to understanding and protecting electoral integrity ahead of the 2027 elections.

Mr Temitope, who is also a postgraduate student at the Centre, identified local electoral insecurity, trust deficits in institutions and voter suppression risks as issues requiring sustained attention.

He said close monitoring of emerging issues could help civil society organisations, security actors and community leaders anticipate potential friction points early enough to prevent election-related violence, protect the rights  of the voters and promote peaceful political participation.

Mr Temitope added that quality data could empower voters by reducing the influence of misinformation and providing citizens with factual information on their electoral rights, security realities and governance issues.

“When citizens have access to trustworthy insight rather than speculation, they are better equipped to hold institutions accountable, vote without fear, and make informed choices for the future,” he said.