Elections

The political climate in Nigeria has left no one in doubt that Nigerians want nothing but credible elections come 2011. The political class has geared up for political challenge to clinch power at all level of governance.

We have all witnessed the past and are poised to witness the future. While Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations used their personal resources to ensure stable society and good governance, some members of the political class were busy cornering public wealth for their personal interests.

I was recently asked to contribute my thoughts on how election monitors using simple mobile phones could improve their safety and security when working in hostile environments. More specifically, the goal was to find techniques by which their use of SMS messaging to report back to a centralized service or team could be done in a more secure, private manner, that would make it more difficult for an adversary working against them to stop, block or track. All of this must be done without software or special hardware, instead just relying on easily teachable techniques.

Here’s the collection of tips and ideas I came up with on short notice. It is by no means complete, but I felt it would be useful to publish these to a wider audience here on my blog. Finally, before you say “well couldn’t criminals and terrorists use these techniques too?”, I will refer you to an excellent Abuse FAQ page from the Tor Project which covers this very topic (“Criminals can already do bad things. Since they’re willing to break laws, they already have lots of options available that provide better privacy than Tor provides”).

Now, on to the topic at hand…

Since most sub-Saharan African countries gained flag independence, it has been very difficult to conduct less rancorous non-controversial and faultless election, through this they have denied their people of good governance and are yet to be seen to be taking, remarkable measures towards democratization that can move their people forward democratically to create a solid foundation for better life. 

The African Democracy Forum (ADF) is an African regional network of democracy, human rights, and governance organizations that seek to consolidate democracy in Africa by providing opportunities for democrats to openly express their views.  The ADF serves as a platform to build solidarity and exchange of resources among members, and supports membership empowerment.
 

After developing the report below- on earlier post (MIKIKI AFRICA report on impacts of post election violence on informal traders in Nairobi,Kenya) a number of issues came up which were very pertinent. The most urgent and effective intervention towards mending fences among the communities or groups which were fighting one another was peace building efforts. These efforts would involve a number of activities targeted at uniting the communities; these includes;

• Organizing village barazas(informal meetings that elicit debate)

• Organizing reconciliation forums where people open up to each other on why they attacked one another and air their sentiments about their fellow countrymen or the other ethnic groups.

• Organizing seminars where experts in conflict resolution and peace building expound on peace issues and conflict resolution.

• Printing brochures and pamphlets for the communities to enable them study the issues to foster proper understanding of each other and enable thrashing of issues to create debate.

We at Mikiki Africa have already started the peace building mission but because of the magnitude of the activities we need your financial support in carrying out this mission. To support the peace building activities please email: mikikiafrica@yahoo.com or contact us through the kabissa link on this article.

MIKIKI AFRICA
is an organization working with informal traders and Small and Medium
Enterprises in Nairobi, Kenya. We took it upon ourselves to
understand the impact of the post election violence in Nairobi which happened at the end of year
2007 and beginning of 2008 after the just concluded general elections. Informal
traders and Small and Medium Enterprises insisted on the need to establish what
they suffered or went through during the violence.

Each month, New Tactics hosts an online dialogue focusing on a particular tactic. This month's featured online dialogue is on Election Monitoring.  Election Monitoring is a powerful tool in promoting democracy, political rights and good governance. We will discuss the principles behind this tactic, the risks and challenges involved, and the techniques being used by practitioners to overcome these challenges. We invite you to join our featured resource practitioners and share your experiences.

The Executive Director of the Africa Peace Building Club, NGO Mr SALAM RAMANI has adviced and sound a warning to all candidates contesting both the presidential and parliamentary elections in the 7th December, 2008 elections not to declare themselves winners of the elections, he said it is only the independent electoral commission that have the mandate and it is their responsibility to declare a candidate as a winner.