8 Ways Technology is Influencing Nigeria’s 2015 Elections

2011 and 2012 was when citizens found a voice via social media in Nigeria. The OccupyNigeria movement is the biggest case in point. 2015 is when they will roar once more, because the general elections
The elections, which shifted from its initial set date, February 14 to March 28, is now days away, and the most influential actors on the political stage are finding ways to manipulate and subvert the conversation in their favour. Every trick in the book is in play — spoof Twitter accounts, viral smear campaigns, blatant astroturfing…in response, civil society is trying to mobilise and use technology to cut through the noise and help citizens engage productively.
In this war of interests, here are ways technology and internet are already impacting Nigeria’s upcoming election.

Election Monitoring

Local developers have designed mobile apps and websites that can aggregate real-time updates from polling units from across the country; some of them with geo-tagging function to track these updates by location.
Nigeria Elections is a mobile app. It aggregates news around the elections, and also provides the listing of polling booths, national constituencies, presidential candidates and their running mates. The results of the election will be uploaded on the app when it is officially announced.


INEC, names after the country’s electoral umpire – Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) -allows users get information on polling units, the election process and the status of their PVC. Another similar election monitoring app is EiE’s Revoda.
Pollwatchng.com and Nigeriadecide.org are websites that which allow voters/observers submit situation reports about the elections in their locale. Users can upload images with cursory comments about the situation being reported.

Online Conversations and Campaigns

Traditional media: print, television and radio, remained the major sources of information dissemination in Nigeria, until enormous mobile penetration, data availability and cheap access.
Internet usage in Nigeria grew by 16% in 2014, making a total of about 37.53% of Nigerians with internet access. Politicians have joined the growing online community.
Political office hopefuls and their supporters have taken to twitter and sent out political messages with  hashtags like #GEJ_WINS, #CHANGE e.t.c.

To show that they “get it”, both front-running political parties – APC and PDP – have staged Google Hangouts. Last month, the APC’s Vice Presidential Candidate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, and Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola answered questions from Nigerian youth. The PDP’s Google Hangout session was staged for its Lagos governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje.

An overwhelming torrent of websites and apps also dot the internet designed by political parties to reach supporters. Forwardnigeria.ng, Apcgmbpyo.org are affiliated with the PDP and APC presidential candidates respectively. They have also embraced candidate-specific apps such as the General Buhari and the APC Situation Room for the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and the other for his party, APC. Forward Nigeria is for the incumbent president and PDP presidential flag bearer, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.


Individuals and civil organisations are also driving conversation via the internet. Enough Nigeria Coalition’s eie.ng is a website that provides information on candidates vying for political offices as well as beams INEC’s press releases. Sterling and Greenback, a Lagos-based enterprise, also created a sentiment machine that measures the level of support for different parties.

Online Advertising

Sponsored posts are popping up at every click of the mouse as there’s a good possibility you encounter a political ad – thanks Adsense – while watching a youtube video or just reading through your favourite blog.
Social media brand promoters also known as pirates of Nigerian twitter are also part of online advertising stratagem. They are throwing their online weight behind the highest bidding political party.

Scripted message like these ones have become too popular on twitter.