Breaking Down the Nigerian Elections

First published on our Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ushahidi/status/1631632829619503106

Nigeria is the most populous black nation on Earth, with over 200 million people. It is home to the second largest film industry on the globe (Nollywood), and is also a fashion, technological and creative hub in Africa.

However, just like any other country, Nigeria has been plagued by a myriad of problems. Top on the list are high unemployment rates among the youth, a weakening Naira, high cost of living and insecurity.

These are some of the challenges that presidential hopefuls promised to address. On February 25, 2023, Nigerians took to the polls to elect the next president. 18 people fielded their candidacy for the position.

Throughout the pre-election period, people shared their views and sentiments on what they expected the outcome to be. Citizens took to social platforms like Twitter to express their thoughts using the hashtag #NigeriaDecides2023 , among others.

Ushahidi partnered with Connected Development [CODE] to deploy technological tools that enabled citizen election monitoring, data-driven decision-making, and collaborative efforts among stakeholders to ensure free, fair, and peaceful elections. That's how Uzabe Platform was born.

Connected Development [CODE] deployed 20,000 observers who covered polling units across 774 local government areas in 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). These observers shared unbiased reports from the grassroots on what was happening.

Most parts of the country reported that elections were carried out peacefully, with many citizens expressing their hope that their preferred candidate would emerge victorious. Young people, especially, were vocal on who they stood behind.

Though the elections were largely carried out peacefully, there were verified reports of some stations remaining closed on election day, yet election results were uploaded.

There were also reports of delays in many voting centres, with some people resulting in using flashlights to cast their ballots as the voting resources arrived late into the evening. This raised concerns of electoral irregularities.

Following the election, Connected Development [CODE] 's CEO Hamzat Lawal released a press statement to share the observations made by the electoral observers deployed to polling stations across the country. Through a press statement, CODE reinforced that its Uzabe platform was not particularly concerned with the results of the election but is interested in the processes of the elections to ensure that INEC’s guidelines are adequately met.

Digital tools were used to cast and relay the results, and the observers noted that the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) were used in 99% of the polling units they were present in.

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that former Lagos governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu won Nigeria’s presidential election garnering 8,794,726 votes that accounted for 36.61% of all votes cast.

With many quarters disputing the results, including other presidential candidates, our focus will still be on Nigeria as we closely follow what happens next. We join the continental and international community in applauding Nigerians for a peaceful voting process. #NigeriaDecides2023

Got something to report on the Nigerian elections? Go to https://uzabe.ushahidi.io/views/map and share your views and observations.