About Transition Monitoring Group

Who We Are

Guarding the people's vote since 1998

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) is the foremost independent civil society election observation organization in Nigeria. Established in 1998 as a non-profit organization, the TMG now has over 400 member organizations committed to the entrenchment of democracy in Nigeria after more than 30 years of repressive military rule. The Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations and the Code of Conduct for Nonpartisan Citizen Election Observers and Monitors embodies TMG's approach to the rights, responsibilities and ethical obligations of nonpartisan citizen election monitoring.

The Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organisations, and the Code of Conduct for Nonpartisan Citizen Election Observers and Monitors, embody TMG's approach to the rights, responsibilities and ethical obligations of nonpartisan citizen election monitoring.

TMG is based on the precepts that:

• The authority of government derives from the will of the people, expressed in genuinely democratic elections;
• Everyone has the right to participate in government and public affairs, including by seeking to be elected and to vote in genuinely democratic elections;
• Elections therefore belong to the people, and citizens have a right to know whether elections honestly and accurately reflect the people's will.

Nonpartisan election monitoring by citizens is an extension of the rights to genuine elections, to participate in public affairs, to associate, and to seek, receive and impart information in the electoral context. It is both an exercise of fundamental rights and a form of human-rights defence, because nonpartisan election monitoring seeks to safeguard electoral integrity — inseparable from defending the ability of citizens to exercise a broad array of civil and political rights.

Vision

TMG's vision is that of a democratic Nigerian society where the well-being of the people will be the primary concern of governance.

Mission

TMG is committed to the advancement of democracy, the practice of democratic values and citizen participation. The key philosophy is that civic education is cardinal to the empowerment of the people.

Objectives

• To develop integrity in the electoral process by monitoring and reporting on the prosecution of the political program
• To observe and monitor the conduct of elections in Nigeria
• To promote accountability, transparency and responsiveness among political leaders and in the public sector
• To encourage and promote participation of citizens, especially of women and other marginalized or vulnerable groups, in the political process
• To assist in capacity building for member organizations
• To provide civic education and democratic capacity building for public institutions
• To encourage wider dissemination of voter education materials
• To advocate and campaign for the promulgation of human rights-compliant and people-oriented legislation

Methods & Tools of Operation

• Civic/political education
• Advocacy/campaign
• Electoral work
• Research and documentation
• Information sharing
• Seminars, workshops, and publications
• Grassroots organizing
• Coalition building/networking