WANEP, ECOWAS, AU launch apps to monitor threats to 2019 polls

As part of measures to prevent violence and other threats to the 2019 general elections, the West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP) Nigeria has launched the Online National Early Warning System (NEWS) Platform and the ArcGIS 360 mobile application.

Speaking during the launch and training of 80 Election Conflict Monitors in Abuja, WANEP Executive Director, Dr. Chukwuemeka Eze, said despite the widespread success of the 2015 general elections, there were reports of over 60 violent incidences resulting in 58 deaths and wanton destruction of properties.

This, according to him, necessitated the series of activities by the organisation partnering with ECOWAS, African Union (AU) and others to ensure the peaceful and credible conduct of the election, especially that it is being seen by political analysts as a test for the nation’s democracy and stability.

“This two days training for community monitors who are going to begin from now onwards to monitor the electoral violence indicators that we developed in October, to monitor the Nigerian elections.

“This training is our own efforts of complementing the effort of the states both at the Nigerian level and then the intergovernmental organizations, ECOWAS and AU on their efforts at institutionalizing electoral processes and deepening democracy in Africa in line with the AU and ECOWAS protocol on democracy and good governance,” Eze said.

According to him, the monitoring process in three folds, involved looking at the structural issues that could lead to electoral violence, by working with state institutions, especially those who are involved in electoral process, the security, INEC, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the legislatures, the judiciary and others involved in electoral processes.

He listed the second level as the proximate causes of the electoral violence and the key accelerators.

“However, what we have done is to use just baseline on the basis of history of electoral violence on the country. The good thing about the system we are operating with, is that the flashpoints are not static, so from now onwards if these monitors, 80 of them selected from all the 36 states including FCT begin to monitor this electoral process, then whatever they input as data, because it also have an aspect of coping mechanism, our definition of risk is vulnerability and threats. Now, once they begin to make input, the system itself tells us where to focus our attention on and that becomes the hotspot even before the election,” Eze said.

On his part, the Programme Officer, GIS and Mapping, Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Early Warning Directorate of ECOWAS commission, Mr. Ismaila Gueye, said ECOWAS is very concerned about election happenings in ECOWAS to promote peace security in the region.

He said that was why WANEP partnered others on the mobile apps.

Commenting on elections in ECOWAS member-states, he said “if you look at the last election in Ghana, Benin or any other country, you will see that there is a lot of progress.”

Also, the Information Systems Officer, Continental Early Warning System, Peace and Security Department, African Union Commission, Taye Abdulkadir, said the AU has a number of frameworks that have been designed through the years to provide good governance, election, and democracy.

“The most common example is African Charter on Governance, Election and Democracy. And it has been ratified by many of the member-states. In addition to that, the AU is also dealing with operational conflict prevention as well as structural conflict prevention,” he said.

On her part, the Analyst for West Africa, Early Warning System, Peace and Security Department, African Union Commission, Mfrekeobong Ukpanah, noted that there are series of threats and series of signs, saying that was why they started the project in collaboration with ECOWAS and WANEP in October.

“We tried to map and identify concretely potential hotspots, either due to issue of election related violence in past elections or due to the current security dynamics in the country.

“Also, we have a checklist like a set of indicators which we developed with different Nigerian stakeholders cutting across four major thematic issues of physical violence, physical assault to issues that have to do with ethics and compliance to the Electoral Act or Rule of Law which could threaten elections to issues of hate related speeches,” she said.