EiE Nigeria Unveils Chatbot to Deepen Engagement On Elections, Governance

Mary Nnah

The Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE), a non-partisan network of individuals and organisations has launched an Office of the Citizen (OOTC). WhatsApp-enabled bot known as CHATBOT to further engage Nigerians on their rights as citizens and demand good governance, probity, accountability and their representatives in all level of government.

The new addition to the EiE portfolio was unveiled to the public at the organisation’s book presentation, ‘Footprints: Past. Present. Future,’ and fundraising to mark its 12th anniversary at MUSON Centre, Onikan in Lagos yesterday.

Addressing the gathering EiE Nigeria’s executive director, Yemi Adamolekun stated that, “Nigerians need to understand the importance of the office of the citizen hence this new assistant on civic engagement.

“It is a WhatsApp bot and it will assist citizens to know their elected officials such as governors, senators, House of Representatives members, State House of Assembly members, Local Government chairmen and councilors. CHATBOT would also assist with registration, PVC collection, polling unit (PU) locator and debates. To get started send ‘hello’ via WhatsApp to 017006381 or scan the QR code,” she added.

A democracy is driven by people, she said. “Now that you know your rights and understand how to engage in the electoral process, it’s time to occupy your office of the citizens because an active citizen should solve problems and hold government officials accountable.”

On what could be done, Adamolekun urged citizens to identify a problem that upsets them enough to solve, then find others in the community to work with, because it is hard to do it alone.

Speaking further she called on citizens to identify the duty bearers, which is the government official/office responsible for this issue and search online or send EiE a message while engaging the duty bearer till the result is achieved.

Apart from the launch of CHATBOT, EiE used the opportunity to present a book titled FOOTPRINTS: Past. Present. Future, which represents inter-generational voices. The foreword of the Book is written by revered Dr. Christopher Kolade and the Book has 47 contributors some of them were Oby Ezekwesili, Aisha Yesufu, Adeola Williams, Tunde Bakare to Innocent Idibia also known as 2Baba and Seun Onigbinde.

While responding to questions during the interactive session at the Book presentation, executive producer and host of #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo encouraged Nigerians to always turn out during voting because voting right isn’t enough.

He believed that when citizens turn out on election day for voting it would send a negative signal to riggers and coup plotters. According to him, “Vote right is a cliché. A robust democracy is about to turn out and anytime we turn out to vote in large numbers is a warning to coup plotters and election riggers that we have chosen this way.”