Civic Hive holds conference on strengthening democracy in West Africa

Civic Hive has organised a conference on strengthening democracy on the continent. 

The West Africa civil tech conference, titled: ‘Strengthening Democracy in West Africa through Technology’, took place in Lagos on Wednesday.

The civic tech event brought together innovators, technologists, and civil society leaders across West Africa to explore how technology is transforming civil engagement, governance, and social impact in the region.

The conference was attended by participants from Nigeria, Ghana, Niger Republic, Mali, The Gambia, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.

In his keynote address, Seun Onigbinde, the global director and co-founder of BudgIT, said technology cannot solve the challenges associated with democracy, adding that societal ideals determine how democracy is practised.

Onigbinde said technology is not a silver bullet, but can be used to accelerate and strengthen democratic processes.

The BudgIT co-founder said the first consideration in building a civic tech tool is the community of people who will use it rather than the solution.

“As we are developing civic tech tools, let’s think first of the community instead of the solution,” he said.

“Most of the time, we are focused on the tools we can build, but the question is, which community are you going to rally around that tool? If you want to build civic technology to strengthen democracy, we should first ask, what is the community behind it?”

During the conference, a panel session discussed how technology can fix democracy and governance in Africa.

Bukola Idowu, team lead of the Kimpact Development initiative, said technology can play a significant role in ensuring free and fair elections, but it is not the major determinant.

Idowu said technology amplifies the culture and character of those who use it for electoral processes.

“If your culture is flawed and corrupt, technology will amplify it, and the kind of person who will use it also matters. Technology amplifies. We must come together and decide whether we want free and fair elections, and then, if we agree, technology can support us,” he said.

Ife Salako, the Labour Party (LP) spokesperson in Lagos state, said the political class in Nigeria is not ready to use technology to simplify electoral processes because it would prevent electoral fraud and manipulation.

Salako urged young Nigerians to participate fully in politics so that they could have a say in decisions affecting their future.

Another panel session discussed how to rethink AI and civic tech for people, impact and inclusive governance.

Hawa Coulibaly, director of operations at Tuwindi, said civic tech tools must be able to adapt to different contexts, especially in an unstable political system.

Coulibaly said civic tech developers must ensure that they build trust with those who will use their tech tools.

Also speaking, Temidayo Taiwo-Sodiq, a senior legislative aide to Akin Rotimi, the lawmaker representing Ekiti north constituency 1, said four bills on the use of artificial intelligence in Nigeria are due for second reading at the house of representatives.

Taiwo-Sodiq said one of the bills seeks to establish an agency to regulate how AI is used in Nigeria.

After the panel sessions, civic tech enthusiasts across West Africa presented the innovations they had developed to tackle issues in the civic space.