AdvoKC, a youth-led civic tech organisation, has launched a digital platform to allow citizens hold elected political officials accountable for their campaign promises while in office.
Habib Sheidu, AdvoKC’s Co-Founder, said in a statement that the digital platform dubbed, ‘Promise Meter’, was developed with the mission to address the gap between elected officials and effective service delivery.
Sheidu said voters in Nigeria were always disappointed when campaign promises were not kept.
According to him, AdvoKC also seeks to increase the rate of fulfilment of campaign promises among political office holders.
“The digital platform leverages on technology through its Data-Driven promise meters to articulate promises made during political campaigns.
“It uses different ratings such as “In the Works,” “Compromise,” “Stalled,” “Promise Kept” and “Promise Broken.”
“AdvoKC promise meter will show promise ratings for citizens to make informed decision during every election cycle,” he said.
Also speaking, Abiola Durodola, AdvoKC’s Team Lead, said that the model was not only focused on addressing transparency and accountability but also citizens engagement and participation in Nigeria as politicians used promises as a political strategy to garner vote during campaigns.
He added that a core mandate of the group was to address the issue of political elites in Nigeria exploiting poverty and illiteracy to mobilise voters with food items and money without delivering on their promises every election cycle.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the group also announced the appointment of Serah Makka-Ugbabe, ONE Campaign Executive Director on Mobilisation as the Chairman of its advisory board.
The team also appointed into its Advisory Board Dayo Ibitoye, Communication and Knowledge Management Specialist at World Bank; Olumide Abimbola, Executive Director, Africa Policy Research Institute; Ms Faith Nwadishi, Executive Director, CTA, and Dr Aliyu Nuhu, a doctoral student at LSE.
Beyond the ‘Promise meter’, the group said that citizens could also access other features like Submit a Promise, Promise Reminder, Factcheck and Climate AdvoKC.(NAN)