As Nigeria prepares to go to election next week, several people are worried about what everyone worries about in Africa, rigging.
We are not.
Anew app dubbed the HawkVision, now available for Android mobile devices wants to help capture images and videos in real time and store them automatically in the cloud to avoid anyone messing up with next weeks elections.
The app stores the date and location stamp to a central secure server so the files can be called up and the exact location, mapped using Google maps, with the data accessed with exact time and sender information.
The app aims to arm volunteers to capture pictures and videos of any usual, unusual and suspicious activity including availability and access to grounds, behavior of the electorate, the police and electoral officers. The captured images are automatically filed according to Polling booth location and stored with time stamp, geographical location and user phone number for confirmatory contact and possible follow-up.
All the data can be accessed by the media, government officials, the police, international monitors and other concerned individuals and groups wishing to investigate and review the captured electoral process.
The app saves the geographical and time and date stamp of any irregularity to ensure authenticity and credibility of all evidence gathered. The HawkVisionApp further enables election monitoring in remote and terrorized locations like the Boko Haram plagued northeast where safety-conscious citizens are available and have downloaded the App.
According to the HawkVisionApp technology team, “Nigeria is too big a country to be manipulated by a handful of people. We developed this app to help solve the problem of election rigging in Nigeria. We believe that Nigeria has all it takes to succeed. What we don‘t have is good leadership. A certain subset of the population keep manipulating the system and denying the people of the leadership that they truly deserve. We need to take our destinies into our hands and we believe that the HawkVisionApp is the appropriate vehicle to do that”
In explaining how the HawkVisionApp will checkmate election rigging and manipulation of results, the HawkVisionApp team said if a users sees an irregularityat the polling centre, they can use the app to take a picture or video then save it into the cloud. This will cat as evidence that the elections were not free and fair and can be used in courts of law.
The HawkVisionApp team also plans to upload all videos and images of the election process on YouTube as soon as they are submitted by users.
“We want the world to follow the election process in Nigeria. We want to put the results out there on YouTube. Our YouTube channel will constantly be receiving live feeds of videos and images from the voting centers and this information will be made free to international media. We want to take our destinies in our hands. If we have at least 10 — 15 monitors per polling booth, who dedicate themselves to ensuring that they capture the entire process, we can be sure that our candidates can be voted in.”