Samson Itodo

Samson Itodo


Executive Director, Yiaga Africa


Samson is the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa and the Convener of the Not Too Young To Run movement. He has 13 years of experience and expertise in elections, legal research and analysis, parliamentary strengthening, constitution building and social movements. He has facilitated the development of policy documents on electoral reform, international development cooperation, constitution review, public governance and political inclusion. He also provides strategic policy advice to parliamentary committees, electoral commissions, political parties, civil society organizations and academic institutions. Samson leads one of Nigeria’s largest citizens movement on electoral integrity, Watching The Vote. Watching The Vote is a citizen-led election observation initiative promoting electoral integrity using technology and data. He has led international election observation missions to Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, United States of America and South Africa.

The impact of his work earned him recognition from international and local organizations. In 2018, he was appointed by the Gates Foundation as a Goal keeper and honoured by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Washington DC as 2018 Rising Democracy leader in Africa. He is winner of the popular The Future Africa Award Young Person of the Year 2018 award and the Leadership Newspaper 2018 Outstanding Young Person of the Year award. He is a fellow of the prestigious Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership program. He was also inducted into 100 Most Influential Young Africans by the African Youth Awards in 2017. In 2017 and 2018 he was recognized amongst YNAIJA’s 10 most powerful names in advocacy and 100 Most Influential People in Nigerian Politics. Samson is a recipient of the Junior Chamber International, Nigeria 2019 Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Nigeria Award for Political, Legal and or Government Affairs. He is a fellow of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape town; International Visitors Leadership Program of the US Department of State, Swedish Visitors Leadership Program, European Union Visitors Program (EUVP) and the UK International Leaders Program. Recently in March 2020, he was recognized by theUnited Embassy in Nigeria as a Nigerian Star for his achievement and service to Nigeria and Nigerians.