I started what I think is an interesting project to make participation in political parties easier by digitizing the process. The basic idea was to build a service that demonstrates how a political party would function if it were built in 2017. So apps and websites were you can do anything from join a political party, follow up and debate issues, keep track of events, monitor finances, and of course vote. All without having to physically be anywhere. More on this here
The idea is to make the framework open source so any party can take it and use it with little modification. So far I have built an API and set up a web app with very basic functionality. Its still a work in progress.
Given this is the premier Nigerian tech community I thought to share it here as well. The project code is on Github (linked on the website) so feel free to contribute or test it on your own. I’m an amateur developer so there will probably be issues. Be warned.
Question, comments, suggestions and all else welcome.
I think you’re on to something with this idea. Participating in politics in Nigeria is really difficult and I’m afraid it’s largely by design. If you haven’t I think you should read “Love does not win elections” by Ayisha Osori. It gives a very good picture of the internal workings of Nigerian political parties.
I think the Nawo project for a start should aim a little lower. Even just collating accurate information of the different wards and their ward office location would be very helpful. Information on the rules and regulations of various parties is also hard to come across.
Good work so far though. I really think increasing political participation is very important in Nigeria and I’m available to help in any way I can. (I am not a developer though)
Thanks. Was supposed to be at the event where she talked about her book but the lagos flood conspired to keep me away. Will get the book though.
A big part of the problem I am trying to solve is to democratize political party functions using tech. With the goal of having better candidates during actual elections. Candidates that have gone through a more democratic process than we see now. For that to happen, I think the bare minimum is solving the joining and voting part. Its not technically that difficult but the parties have no incentive to do it.
I actually have a list of all wards in Nigeria, at least as at the last elections. Of course the specific meeting point for each word will be different. Will update that soon.