Nigeria’s Popoola develops app for Britons, Nigerians to rate their leaders Rate Your Leader is a fast-growing democracy app which allows voters in Nigeria and the United Kingdom to communicate with their elected representatives at the touch of a button. OLUKOREDE YISHAU examines this app developed by Nigeria’s Joel Oyeyinka Popoola, who grew up in Gbongan, Osun State
In a few days, Theresa May’s era as the British Prime Minister will come to an end. Nominations for the Conservative leadership will close on June 10 and the first ballot will hold the day after. Through a series of ballots, aspirants will be eliminated until a final shortlist of two is chosen by party members.
The Members of Parliament who announced their candidacy are James Cleverley, Michael Gove, Sam Gyimah, Matt Hancock, Mark Harper, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom, Kit Malthouse, Esther McVey, Dominic Raab and Rory Stewart.
Cleverley and Malthouse have since pulled out of the race. The aspirants, who have shown interest in replacing May, have signed up to a democracy app allowing voters to contact them directly from their phone or tablet, a development which has led to the race being dubbed “the most accessible election ever”. The app, known as Rate Your Leader, is a fast-growing democracy app which allows voters in Nigeria and the United Kingdom to communicate with their elected representatives.
The app designed by Joel Popoola, who had his childhood in Gbogan in Osun State, is programmed in such a way that communication on it cannot be abusive. The app can detect abuse and delete it. Day in, day out, more and more Members of Parliament, councillors, police and crime Commissioners are taking advantage of the app to communicate with their constituents.
The Rate Your Leader app is available for free from the Apple and Google marketplaces. With the platform, politicians can also engage with registered voters in their constituencies. Popoola, who is Rate Your Leader founder and Tyne and Wear tech entrepreneur, said: “Whoever wins the race to become the next Tory leader, and the next Prime Minister, has a real job on his hands reaching out to the electorate. Every one of the 12 current candidates is clearly taking that very seriously by putting themselves in the position to enter into a dialogue with voters on a one-on-one level.
“The fact that voters can use the Rate Your Leader app to do this means that this contest is arguably already the most accessible election ever.
“There is a wide and diverse field of candidates, but what unites them is the claim that they can reach out to parts of the electorate not currently voting Conservative. With a clear commitment to digital engagement, they are at least backing up that claim.”
Popoola’s motivation for developing the app is captured in these words: “Across the world, democracy is changing forever, and Nigeria is no different. Voters expect to have more influence on politics than our traditional representative democracy can necessarily accommodate.
As a result, voters are either defecting to anti-establishment parties or becoming more and more attracted by direct action.
“People’s political priorities and motivations are becoming more and more disparate and unpredictable, and politicians are clearly failing to ascertain what voters really want.” He believes the app will bridge the gap between politicians and the electorate.
Popoola had his primary and secondary education at the St Paul’s Anglican Primary School and Gbongan Community High School. A British citizen of Nigerian descent, Popoola studied Accounting with a background in Banking, Finance and Insurance. He also holds a Masters degree holder in Managerial Psychology from the University of Ibadan.
He said: “Around the world, from Trump supporters in America to Gillets Jaunes in France to Brexit supporters in the UK, people are feeling more and more out of touch with politics, and it’s only a matter of time before a similar apathy descends on Nigeria.
One in three Nigerians uses Facebook, and technology offers the opportunity to connect politicians and people like never before. That dichotomy is driven by social media giants being unwilling, unable or both to effectively crack down on trolls and bots.”
A citation of him by an organisation, which declared him Boss of the Week gives an insight into his person: “Here is a man whose penchant for knowledge in an ever competitive world propelled him into the IT world where he has practised professional software testing consultancy spanning a period of four uninterrupted and highly productive and eventful years.
“His earliest career path saw him traversing through two superior financial institutions based in his home country, Nigeria; they are United Bank for Africa (UBA) and the former Intercontinental Bank, which is today a part of the ever-growing Access Bank. These institutions sharpened, shaped and honed his professional skills and grounded him in distinguishing Leadership roles with excellent service delivery in Banking Operations, Customer Care Management, Branch Start-up and Management, Relationship Management, Business Development, Risk Management and Information Technology.
“Passionate about delivering exceptional services and standards within the un-compromised confines of policies and procedures in the achievement of high-demanding objectives and corporate targets, Popoola who lives permanently in England, has not forgotten that charity begins at home. He brings this phenomenon to life with his constant thoughts directed at events on the home front, especially the forthcoming general elections which is just a few weeks away.
His desire to see the execution of the best of elections led to the creation of the Nigeria Democracy App, Rate Your Leader. This is a technology dedicated to correcting the inability and unwillingness of social media giants to crack down on bots and trolls, which inadvertently has had an adverse effect on their users, politicians and even global democracy.
“Popoola’s consistency has over the years engendered his capabilities to not only execute his deliverables but to also exceed expectations in doing so. He is such a force to reckon with. “Probably proper to refer to him as a man who saw tomorrow, Popoola is using his technology to connect politicians with verified local electors using abuse-proof technology aims to ‘Take back democracy with technology.
“Popoola’s ingenuity sets the standard in celebrating knowledge based on proven integrity towards rekindling an abuse-proof digital platform which connects voters and politicians. He has personally urged the electorate to embrace new technology to ‘take back democracy’ or risk the downside.
“The Rate Your Leader app is a global online platform which helps politicians engage only with voters in their constituencies in an abuse-proof way and allows elected leaders to truly understand what matters most to the people who elect them while allowing local people to identify and contact their representatives at the touch of a button, direct from their phones or tablets. That is ingenuity at the highest level.
“Consequently, as many that have lost faith in their representatives have just got their faith rekindled. The tech-preneur quoted research from YouGov, an international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations across the world, which declared that only 18% of voters trust politicians to ‘do what is right’, with 66% believing their elected officials put personal interest before communal interest.
“This decline in faith in traditional politics, he said, has coincided with the election of explicitly anti-establishment leaders in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines and India, the result of the Brexit referendum the UK and in the case of the Gillets Jaunes, Paris, direct action on the streets. The Rate Your Leader has practically eased the distrust, thanks to the foresightedness of Mr Popoola.
“Popoola has set a personal and professional value-chain of goals and has a proven track record of adding value and raising the bar through the unfettered contribution of significant milestones to business performance.
“The achiever is a member of Tech London Advocates, and an Advance Member of The Institutes of Directors, and is totally, passionately and irrevocably committed to working with positive-minded people in creating a better world.
“Mr Popoola is married to Dr Olusola Popoola nee Awomolo, and they are blessed with two lovely children Praise and Ife.” On the importance of the app, Popoola said: “Since Twitter, Facebook and others are not stepping up to the plate on this, we clearly need new democratic tech which allows genuine residents to interact with their elected officials in an abuse-proof way. Our Rate Your Leader technology can do it, so why can’t the tech giants? The technology allows elected leaders to truly understand what matters most to the people who elect them while allowing local people to identify and contact their representatives at the touch of a button, direct from their phones or tablets. The app, which also allows people to check if they are registered to vote and identify their elected representatives at the touch of a button, is free to download from the App store and other app marketplaces.
“Democracy is now digital, which means social media companies have a responsibility to provide a safe space for both politicians and our democracy and they are evidently failing on both fronts. As a result, a troubling amount of our political debate in other parts of the world is dominated by Russian trolls and computerised bots while actual politicians are forced off social media by 21st-century pitchfork-wielding mobs. That cannot be right.” The app is programmed to also work in Nigeria and it will allow Nigerians to communicate with their leaders in such a way that abuse is eliminated.
