Recognizing the need for more transparent and credible elections in Nigeria, Connected Development (CODE) launched Uzabe, an election monitoring tool, to identify gaps in the Nigerian electoral processes and to provide a feedback mechanism that gives citizens real-time situational reports on election processes targeting specific locations within different parts of the country.
Uzabe, is an Open Situation Awareness Room (OSAR) initiative that will provide real-time intelligence, mapping tools, and witness reports from our 20,000 trained observers spread across various polling units in Nigeria.
Using the UZABE platform, CODE actively participated in Nigeria’s 2015 and 2019 general elections and deployed over ten thousand observers in both polls, who reported in real-time, leveraging the geo-mapping technological tool.
For this project, CODE deployed 5000 field observers in 35 states out of the 36 states and FCT to provide situation reports from different polling units in their respective states with about 60 high-level situation room personnel that validated and published reports from the field observers; CODE actively participated and made inputs in the recently signed 2022 Electoral Act. CODE also partnered with Cross-check Nigeria which served as a new front to combat fake news during the 2019 general elections in the country. The online platform for the initiative served as a collaborative information verification project aimed at improving the quality of information for the unsuspecting general public by debunking misinformation and fake news and sanitizing the media space during the election.