A Civil Society Organisation Connected Development, (CODE), has launched a technology that will allow it monitor and report real-time electoral procedures of the coming elections.
The technology, named Uzabe, is an Open Situation Awareness Room (OSAR) initiative,
that will provide citizens with real-time situational reports on election processes, targeting specific locations in different parts of the country.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Chief Executive Director of CODE Mallam Hamzat Lawal explained that
recognising the need for more transparent and credible elections in Nigeria became necessary, hence the need for a real-time technology to promote credibility.
“Uzabe, is an Open Situation Awareness Room (OSAR) initiative that will provide real-time intelligence, mapping tools, and witness reports from our 20,000 trained observers spread across various polling units in Nigeria”.
Lawal said “Using the UZABE platform, CODE actively participated in Nigeria’s 2015 and 2019 general elections and deployed over ten thousand observers in both polls, leveraging the geo-mapping technological tool.”
To achieve the much desired election success, CODES also engaged the Media and other Civil Society Organisations in a meeting to deepen collaboration, ahead of the coming polls.
CODE disclosed that out of the 20,000 observers to be deployed by CODE, 7000 would be accredited by INEC, while the remaining 13,000 are to observe and report the election proceedings from their various polling units. ” CODE is partnering Meta to help flag down fake news in social media and security agents to improve security situations” Lawal added.
In his submission, CODE Director of Democracy Mr Emmanuel Njoku, noted that INEC haven registered 93.3 per cent of voters, is expecting between 40 to 42 per cent of voter turnout if there’s no incidents of voter oppression.
The stakeholders present signed a memorandum of understanding with CODE aimed at tackling fake news, misinformation and dissemination which could marred the credibility of elections.
Reporting by Julian Osamoto