CODE And VoQ Calls For More Citizen Reports Via Uzabe

CODE AND VOTE OR QUENCH ENCOURAGE VOTERS TO REPORT ON UZABE MONITORING PLATFORM FOR NIGERIAN GOVERNORSHIP ELECTIONS

With the Nigerian Presidential Elections over, Nigerians are now marching back to the polls to participate in a vital gubernatorial election that will be held April 11^th, 2015 where even closer monitoring is required. Recently launched Uzabe, presents the solution.

(April 10th,2015, Lagos, Nigeria) –The Nigerian Presidential elections, along with that of the Senate and House of Representatives, which was held on March 28^th, 2015,saw a relatively peaceful procedure which ended in a victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari winning the top-most office seat in Nigeria. During these elections, Connected

Development [CODE] deployed their recently launched real-time geo-specific online monitoring platform, Uzabe (which means “you vote” in the Nigerian Hausa language).

The Uzabe platform was developed to collate and provide citizens, particularly security agencies, disaster management agencies, media and electoral officials with real-time information about the conduct of the exercise in a given polling unit. The platform would help also check other irregularities capable of undermining the outcome of the elections while mitigating violence.

Following Uzabe’s deployment during the recently concluded March 28^th elections, CODE’s over 1000 Observers in 31 states reported in real-time several cases on the election procedures which was filtered, validated and analyzed by Experts from Standby Task Force and Peace Geek of the Digital Humanitarian Networkbefore making public reports of affirmation.

Chief Executive of CODE, HamzatLawal stated, “The Uzabe platform took off extremely well and users found it quite easy to use while they lined up in their respective polling units. We now hope to collate real-time information during these governorship elections to ensure a transparent exercise which can hopefully be managed well by the media, electoral and security agencies alike. 

Especially as one of the INEC accredited observers, our goal is to ensure we provide an effective opportunity for voters to transmit their experiences live from their units. As usual, we would still make reference to citizen reports via Twitter and Facebook feeds that would help do more justice to integrity of our data collated.”

Lawal further stated that ‘Uzabe has been viewed in over 107 countries from around the world and has been used to on Wazobia FM, Nigeria Television Authority, Cool FM Abuja, Nigeria Info FM, BBC and also on Premium Times to provide listeners and viewers situation reports as they unfold and most importantly, real time reports from the platform were used for security briefings with top security and intelligence agencies in Nigeria’.

CODE partners Vote or Quench have asserted the importance of this tool particularly for Nigerians outside Nigeria who are diligently monitoring this historic 2015 election cycle.“We are much honored to be partnering withan amazing team of change agents and applaud the Uzabe platform. The Nigerians in the diaspora, who are constantly seekingthe best and most credible opportunity to track these elections can now look to Uzabe as that platform,” said the co-founders’ unit of Vote or Quench.

Uzabe, through over 1000 trained observers (in 31 states of the federation) and other citizens reports on the opening, accreditation, voting and counting processes during the elections day while establishing early warning systems for vulnerable communities and strengthening mitigation of violence and emergency response during violence.

Uzabe is also created to enable the rest of the public interface with CODE in shaping pubic discussions targeted at ensuring free, fair, credible and peaceful elections. “The technology is designed to work using SMS as its feedback mechanism as every household in Nigeria has access to mobile services”. 

For CODE in Abuja, HamzatLawal, hamzy@connecteddevelopment.org, +2348068699956.

For Vote or Quench in Lagos, EseEmerhi, emerhi@gmail.com,+2347030539016 

About Connected Development [CODE]

Connected Development is a non-government organization whose mission is to improve access to information and empower local communities in Africa. CODE strengthens local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate and building capacities of marginalized communities which brings about social and economic progress, while promoting transparency and accountability.www.connecteddevelopment.org

About Vote Or Quench

Vote or Quench (V.O.Q) is aWashington DC based, 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization created to engage and involve Nigerian youth - at home and in diaspora - in the political process. Connecting through social networks and social media, our mission is to create a virtual living room for like-minded Nigerians anywhere in the world to join the conversation, express views, share ideas and have their voices heard. www.voteorquench.org