Politics
Find Out Who to Vote for with Orodata’s MyCandidate Platform
By Sandra Ani
Nigerians are eager to make a decision on who will lead their country for the next four years as the general election day approaches.
One key observation is that the news and social media have been dominant with chatter about the major Presidential contenders, even though they are not the only ones running.
Hardly would one see a major discussion on the other candidates contesting for seats in the Senate and House of Representatives where laws are made and the president is checked.
And this leaves a huge gap on the identities of these candidates, and the abilities of the citizens to make educated choices.
The very same holds true for the House of Assembly, Governorship, and Sub-national elections. About 11 states of the Federation are holding the governorship elections, but again, not many are aware of the states and the candidates.
Nigerians have benefited less from this practice than they have from it. While these contenders remain hidden behind the shields of their political party, Nigerians have a right to know who is running for parliamentary seats, and what advancement they are willing to bring.
This is why Orodata Science and Open Cities Lab created the MyCandidate portal, which allows Nigerians to learn more about every candidate across all levels and states. The platform has two main components; ‘Locate me’ and ‘Address search’.
Users are able to leverage their location, state, or local government to discover a list of all the candidates contesting in their area and be informed. With the “Locate me” button on the website, the result is instant.
However, with the second feature, a user only needs to start typing the name of their local government and a list will appear, from which they can make a selection to see a list of candidates for all tiers of elections.
MyCandidate includes an embed code, a segment of HTML code that enables users to insert the website’s content into another website. You can copy and paste this code onto any website that accepts HTML.
This embed code can be used by online media, civil society, and other institutions to add MyCandidate to their own websites and provide this data to their own communities.
Orodata science is renowned for enhancing the way people and organizations use data to address pressing societal issues and advance progress. This project aims to bridge the information gap between voters and candidates while also assisting journalists and civil society groups in their efforts to monitor each candidate’s development following elections.
MyCandidate Nigeria is an open-source platform and relies on the extensive data provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and verified information sourced from the media. In addition to giving crucial details about each candidate, it also gives access to the Google search engine for more data.
The program lead, Uche Oti, believes that bringing the same initiative before the elections in Nigeria will have an impact on voters’ knowledge and enable them to make better decisions about who deserves their votes. MyCandidate, which was piloted by Open Cities Lab in South Africa, saw great success, according to Uche Oti.
“In order to be heard at the 2023 general elections, MyCandidate Nigeria is a crucial tool.
All individuals are urged to embrace this platform and make an educated decision regarding who will serve as their leader for the ensuing four years. Citizens can feel confident in their voting choices with MyCandidate Nigeria because they have the knowledge and resources needed to make an informed decision ” he said.
Politics
President Tinubu Restructures Media and Communications Team
President Bola Tinubu has re-designated the positions of two recently appointed officials in the State House media and communications team to enhance efficiency within the government’s communication machinery.
The restructuring is as follows:
1. Mr. Sunday Dare – hitherto Special Adviser on Public Communication and National Orientation is now Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications.
2. Mr. Daniel Bwala – announced last week as Special Adviser, Media and Public Communication, is now special adviser Policy Communication.
These appointments, along with the existing role of Special Adviser, Information and Strategy , underscore that there is no single individual spokesperson for the Presidency.
Instead, all the three Special Advisers will collectively serve as spokespersons for the government.
This approach aims to ensure effective and consistent communication of government policies, decisions, and engagements.
Signed: Bayo Onanuga
Special Adviser to the President, (Information and Strategy)
More accolades for the Minister of State for Defence H.E Dr Muhammed Bello Matawalle, MoN, for his commitment and dedication to his duties and the
latest is the remarks of goodwill of the minister made by the newly elected National Speaker of the leading Youth’s body in Nigeria, the Youth Assembly of Nigeria (YAN), Comrade Famuyibo Oluwasegun, during his acceptance speech at the national election held at Agura Hotels, Abuja weekend.
Comrade Oluwasegun, who hails from Ekiti State, described the Minister as a Youths role model who has demonstrated rare courage in fighting bandits and terrorists to their standstill in North West and other parts of the country and above all his loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR.
The National Youth Speaker noted further that “After God Almighty who made his emergence possible, the Minister of State Defence and former Governor of Zamfara state, Dr. Bello Matawalle was a prominent factor to his new attained height.
“My mentor, His Excellency Dr. Matawalle extended an unalloyed hand of leadership, direction and support to me which were instrumental to making my victory a reality”, Famuyibo stated.
The YAN Speaker-elect thanked the YAN Board of Trustees, Convention Planning Committee and the entire YAN delegates for finding him worthy to lead the 4th Assembly of Nigerian Youths.
Also lending his voice, the Acting BoT Chairman of YAN, Hon. Gt. C Samuel advised the newly elected leaders of YAN to be good Ambassadors of Nigerian Youths and Nigeria at all times. He encouraged them to bring out the best of their thinking caps while planning for a befitting inauguration of the 4th Assembly as elected.
Other elected new national leadership of the 4th Assembly of Youth Assembly of Nigeria, included Umar Bala Babayaro of Kaduna state emerged the Deputy National Speaker, Sadiq Abubakar of Borno state as Majority Leader, Ezeanikwe Charles as Deputy Majority Leader, Raymond Sylvanus of Cross Rivers state as National Chief Whip, Jennifer Ornguga of Benue state as National Minority Leader and Jude Chinonso as Diaspora Ambassador.
The Federal Executive Council chaired by President Bola Tinubu has scrapped two ministries, Techeconomy can report.
The ministries, according to a tweet by President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, are Niger Delta Ministry and the Ministry of Sports Development.
“There will now be a ministry of regional development to oversee all the regional development commissions, such as Niger Delta Development Commission, North West Development Commission, South West Development Commission, and North East Development Commission.
“The National Sports Commission will take over the role of the Ministry of Sports”, Onanuga tweeted.
“The FEC also approved the merger of the Ministry of Tourism with the Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy.
“The decisions were taken today at the meeting of Federal Executive Council in Abuja.
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