Do You Really Know Who You’re Voting For?
Ask the average Nigerian to name the person representing them in the House of Representatives or the State House of Assembly, and many will struggle. Ask what the candidate they plan to vote for intends to do once in office, and the silence gets louder. Voters are not indifferent. The information they need is scattered, hard to verify, or simply not within reach.
That gap shapes how people vote. Without clear information, many fall back on party lines and vote “Top to Bottom,” ticking every name under one party without knowing who most of them are. Others vote on familiarity, or on whatever they heard last. The result is that people end up in office who were never properly examined, and citizens spend years living with decisions they did not fully make.
This is the problem EiE Nigeria has been working on. Its work centres on strengthening citizen engagement and promoting good governance, and the organisation kept arriving at the same question: how can people engage with leadership when they can’t easily find out who is asking for their vote, or what they stand for?
GoToMyPu was built to answer that.
The name means “Go to my polling unit,” and the platform starts with the practical side of voting. Citizens can find their polling unit, get map directions to it, and share the location with friends and family on WhatsApp.
The part that speaks most directly to the problem is the candidate information. For each candidate, the platform brings together a biography, background, priorities and manifesto in one place, so a voter can see who a candidate is and what they say they will do without piecing it together from rumours, posters and campaign jingles.
The side-by-side comparison goes a step further. A voter who is undecided can place candidates next to each other and look at their backgrounds and priorities on the same page. Instead of choosing on name recognition or party loyalty, they can weigh what each person is actually offering, and ask better questions of the people seeking their vote.
For now, GoToMyPU covers the Southwest and Rivers State, with more states to be added. If your state isn’t listed yet, check back, as coverage is expanding.
An informed vote won’t fix everything, but it is where accountability starts.
When citizens know who is on the ballot and what those people have promised, it becomes harder for leadership to go unexamined and easier to hold it to account once the votes are counted.
Modesola Olasoji is a Media Associate at Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria. She is a social media manager and content strategist based in Lagos.