Elect But Don't Deceive Other is a project that seek to defuse the misinformation around electoral campaigns in Nigeria. As the most populous country in Arica and biggest democratic nation in the continent, election seems to be a do or die affairs in the country. As such politicians used to devise every means possible in order to win election including shedding blood of their opponents. Another tactics politicians in the country deploy is the use of fake news and misinformation in order to misdirect the voters when it comes to casting their votes and making their choices. In the past, we have witnessed how politicians deployed misinformation and changed the direction of votes in the country. For example, in 2007 and 2011 general elections voters were misdirected to vote candidates who were not their choice either through radio, online newspaper or social media. This project idea will work to dispel and counter misinformation by providing the citizens with right and genuine information. CITAD in this project will create a mobile app named ENDO which will be used to track misinformation around the upcoming 2023 general elections in Nigeria. The ENDO Application will be a user friendly application where users can report misinformation and fake news around elections and at the same time get genuine information. Also, CITAD will assign dedicated staff who will be monitoring and reporting misinformation around election in the country.
| Elect But Don't Deceive Others (ENDO) | |
|---|---|
| A WikiCred 2022 Grant Proposal | |
| Project Type | Technology |
| Author | (CITAD) |
| Contact | info@citad.org |
| Requested amount | $10,000 |
| Award amount | Unknown |
- What is your idea?
- Why is it important?
This is very important as the country is heading towards its 2023 general elections. And looking at the past experiences there is need to address the issue of misinformation around election in the country. Secondly, the 2023 election is one of the biggest and unique in the country’s history looking at the combination of the presidential candidates that came from the three major ethnic groups in the country; Atiku Abubakar, a Fulani from the northern part of the country, Peter Obi, an Ibo man from the South eastern part of the country and Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba from the South Western part of the country. Having these candidates from these three regions have already stated heating the electoral atmosphere’s of the country
- Link(s) to your resume or anything else (CV, GitHub, etc.) that may be relevant
NIL
- Is your project already in progress?
NO
- How is this project relevant to credibility and Wikipedia?
This project is relevant because it is trying to dispel misinformation around election and provide citizens (voters) with credible and genuine information which Wikipedia is being doing for many years. Also, providing citizens with genuine information is a responsibility upon every organization and Wikipedia has been promoting this for a very long time.
- What is the ultimate impact of this project?
Voters elect their choice without interference from the third parties/Voters have access to genuine and verified information around electoral processes
- Can your project scale?
Yes, this can be scaled up as we are already into activities that are related to election in the organization. Secondly, as an ICT based organization we will continue maintaining the application and feeding it with right information and at the same time countering the misinformation being spread around the electoral processes in the country. Moreover, over the years, we have been implementing activities around countering hate and dangerous speech and misinformation, so this can be integrated into our already existing activities
- Why are you the people to do it?
Because we have many years’ experience working in the area and have experienced staff. In the past we have handled many projects successfully (we can provide evidence if needed).
- What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
In Nigeria most of the time people that are being misled especially during election are people living with disabilities and women due to their status and level of education in the society. These have made them easy target when it comes to spreading such kind of information. This project will ensure that women and PWDs are being carried along and the application will be simplified in a way that even the uneducated in the society can use it. More so, we will ensure these category of people are fully sensitized before the unveiling of the application.
- What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
Since this is a project that has to do with an Application there is going to be a little challenge to the people who are not well educated. To overcome this, we plan to organize a sensitization on the use of the application to enlighten and educate people on how to use the application. Secondly, since this involve politicians and their interest it will also pose a threat to the project. To address this, we intend to pay advocacy visits to the major political parties in the country and intimate them about the application and why we doing the project, by doing that they will understand that we are not targeting certain political party.
- How will you spend your funds?
1. Mobile application development 2. Sensitization campaign 3. Stipend to people working on monitoring and countering misinformation 4. Internet subscription
- How long will your project take?
6 MONTHS
- Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
NO