Martin Luther King Jnr. once said “injustice in one place is a threat to justice everywhere”. An NGO called Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE Nigeria) has taken a bold step to fight electoral injustice in Nigeria, and this is being done with the aid of technology. The organisation has launched an app called Revoda. Basically, the aim of this app is to turn voters into electoral observers in their various polling units across the country, in hopes that it will stem the frequency of occurrence of electoral malpractices.
Revoda is not a new app; it has been available since around 2011 in the Lite version for older operating systems like Java and Symbian. It also has its Blackberry version, although the Android version is not very old. The iOS version is also available and can be found on the Apple store; today we will be talking about the Android version.
Downloading Revoda App
The app is just a little over 1MB and therefore wouldn’t take much space on your device. It also doesn’t request any special permissions. To get started, go to the Google Play Store and type in the word “Revoda” and then you’ll be able to download and install the app.
How to use the Revoda Election Voting App
Revoda is actually very easy to use. After download and installation, the first page opens and you are required to register your name and phone number.
After your registration, the page that opens contains four options which are – Incident report, election results, election monitoring and info centre.
Before submitting any report, you’ll be required to input your polling unit and election type e.g. Presidential, Governorship, and so on.
Incident Report
With the incident report option, you can report all manner of incidences including violence, collusion, ballot box snatching and many other forms of electoral malpractices. You can also attach photos or videos, and also view your previous reports.
Election Result
If you wait until the elections are collated for your polling units, you can enter in the number of votes each party got from that polling unit using the Election Result option bearing in mind that other Revoda users are doing the same in their respective polling units.
Election Monitoring
With the election monitoring option, one can report if an election has started or not, if there are security agents on site, if materials are available, and many other inputs just to know the progress of the election.
Info Centre
Info centre contains the official contact information of INEC officers for all the states, INEC hotlines and other INEC information. It also contains the contact details of the police command of all the states in Nigeria and the FCT. The info centre also has an option for telling friends about the app through your social media handles.
You will be charged the price of one SMS the first time you send a report with the app. Looks like no stone was left unturned in the detailing of this app as it has the names of all the registered political parties in Nigeria as at the last general elections.
The downside of this app is that it hasn’t been updated since 2015, and one cannot be anonymous as you have to register with your name and phone number. Apart from these, the app is alright, and it is also the first of its kind in Nigeria. Revoda is available for free download on Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Blackberry World.
You can download the Revoda Voting app for various mobile devices from the links below:
