Wednesday 18 February 2015

GOOGLE Shows Interest In Nigeria 2015 Elections

Google, a renowned company popular for its first class search engine and other ever-reliable services, had shown a concern about the Nigeria 2015 general elections. The authority of the Google company had launched a public portal to help voters and citizens to get an easy access to the latest information about the election. The portal which can be located at http://www.google.ng/elections  was created by Google to provide easy access to media information such as news, videos, audiovisual files and pictures about the election and each political parties in the country. The portal is public, to the extent that it can be viewed from Smartphones, computers, or mobile phones.

Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google's Communication and Public Affairs Manager for Nigeria, confirmed the launching in a press release by ThisDayLive. He stated: "The internet continues to play increasingly role in the way political parties and voters take part in elections in Africa. Today, it's easier for voters to actively take part in the electoral process".
He further added that "visitors to the portal will be able to access news, features and audiovisual content on the political parties and their candidates,  other major players and the various preparation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),in the run-up to the polls. There are also interactive platforms that will enable the candidates better articulate their manifestoes and agenda to the voting public who in turn can task the office seekers on issues of interest to them."

Attached to this gallery feature and multimedia concept created by Google is another feature located at http://pledgetovotenigeria.com where web surfers were permitted to make and create a public badge which can be shared on social media. "there are other features that are also designed to encourage eligible voters to vote on the Election Day. We have the 'pledge to vote' feature which allows visitors to publicly commit to vote via personalised #pledgetovote badges which can be downloaded and shared with their friends and the public via social media." To backup his points, the manager stated that "we think that by sharing pictures and images of their badges with friends or acquaintances on facebook and other social media, they too may be encouraged to make a pledge. The more people who commit, the greater the voter turnout and the better Nigeria's democracy would be for it."

He made it known that this kind of technology wasn't the first that Google had launched. "Its not the first time that Google has launched an Election hub for a country, the concept was first launched in 2007, and has since had other 40 editions including during the 2013 Ghana and Kenya polls" - he said on a final note.

So far, so good. I think the atmosphere of communication in Nigeria, is changing everyday with much favour to science and technology. Improvements included changing from analog to digital; graduating from antenna to satellite dish; moving forward from stationary to satellite campus; proceeding from manual to automatic; and with good communication media like these, it is my belief that Nigeria by 2050, will no longer vote with ballot papers. She will have graduated out of that to a more stable computer age.

Thanks for visiting.

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