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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Ahead of the general election, Orodata Science has developed a platform known as ‘MyCandidate’ where Nigerians can get information about every candidate at all levels and all states.
According to a statement by the organisation on Friday, the platform was developed in partnership with Open Cities Lab.
Program Lead, Uche Oti said MyCandidate which has been piloted by Open Cities Lab in South Africa witnessed a tremendous success.
Oti said bringing the same initiative before the elections in Nigeria will have an impact on voter’s knowledge and enable them make better decisions on who deserves their votes.
He said: “As general election day is right on our doorsteps. Nigerians are waiting to make an informed choice on who will be at the helm of power for the next four years, but the news space has been dominated by the leading presidential candidates and they are not the only ones coming to the ballot.
“While it is essential to know all the presidential candidates and what they are willing to offer, it is also crucial to know who is contesting to have a seat at the senate and house of representatives chambers to make laws and also checkmate the president.
“The same goes for the sub national elections, the governorship and house of assembly. Many Nigerians are only aware of the leading candidate willing to sit at the executive arm of government.
“This practice has done more harm than good to the people of Nigeria. While those contesting for the parliamentary seats hide under the covers of their political party, they also have a role to play in nation building and the community they represent have a right to know what development they are willing to bring to them.
“The platform has two key features; ‘Locate me’ and ‘Address search’. Users who visit are met by a large ‘Locate me’ button which upon clicking, prompts them to ‘allow MyCandidate’ to access their location.
Users are to click ‘allow’ which then brings out their exact coordinate, address details showing their state, senatorial district and local government area. Users are able to see a list of all candidates from Presidency, the Senate, Governorship and House of Representatives elections.
“MyCandidate also features an embed code, Link:https://mycandidate-nigeria.opencitieslab.org/ a piece of HTML code that can be used to embed its content into another website.
“This code can be copied and pasted onto any website that supports HTML. Online news platforms, civil society institutions, and other organizations can use this embed code to add MyCandidate to their own websites. This allows them to share the candidates’ profiles with their own audience.”
