Our History
From Nigeria's transition to democracy to the defence of every vote since.
The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) was established in 1998, at the dawn of Nigeria's return to civilian rule after more than thirty years of repressive military government. Civil-society and human-rights organisations came together to form a nonpartisan coalition capable of observing and monitoring the transition elections — and to build a durable institution for guarding electoral integrity in the democracy that followed.
Today TMG has grown into a coalition of over 400 member organisations spanning every state of the federation. Its observers have been deployed to monitor general elections and off-cycle governorship elections across the country, and its secretariat has organised national stakeholders' conferences, issued communiqués and press briefings, produced election observation checklists and reports, and advocated continuously for electoral reform.
Milestones
TMG established as a coalition of civil-society and human-rights organisations to observe Nigeria's transition to democracy.
TMG observes the elections that restored civilian rule, establishing the model of nonpartisan citizen election observation in Nigeria.
TMG deploys citizen observers across successive general elections, expanding its coalition, methodology and national reach.
Deploys 633 citizen observers across all three senatorial districts and all 21 local government areas for the Anambra State Governorship Election, using a Quick Count methodology, and issues statements verifying the accuracy of INEC's announced results.
Hosts a national stakeholders' conference on the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), supported by UNDP/DGD, with over 200 participants, and constitutes a CVR Implementation Monitoring Committee.
The TMG Constitution is adopted, formalising the organisation's governance: the Annual General Meeting, the Board and the Secretariat.
Issues a press briefing on the conduct and outcome of the 2017 Anambra State Governorship Election.
Deploys observation checklists and citizen observers for the general elections, including pre-voting, election-day and post-voting observation tools, and engages in electoral reform advocacy.
TMG continues to monitor elections, advocate for reform, and build citizen capacity for civic and democratic participation ahead of every electoral cycle.