How We Operate In Public

Naija Reality is completely non-partisan. We have zero affiliation with any political party — APC, PDP, Labour Party, NNPP, or any other. We are not funded by, aligned with, or influenced by any politician, political movement, government ministry, parastatal, or electoral body in Nigeria or internationally.

We do not endorse any candidate, party, or political position — ever. Our platform publishes data from citizens. We do not interpret that data through a political lens or frame findings to favour any political outcome.

Any attempt by any political actor to use Naija Reality data in campaign materials, electoral advertising, or partisan advocacy is prohibited without written consent and will be publicly disclosed if detected.

We collect only the minimum data necessary: state of residence, age group, residence type (Nigeria or diaspora), and responses. No names, phone numbers, or email addresses are collected at any point.

All data is stored in encrypted PostgreSQL databases via Supabase, hosted in secure cloud infrastructure. Access is restricted to authorised team members using multi-factor authentication.

IP addresses are hashed using SHA-256 immediately upon receipt and are never stored in raw form. We cannot identify any individual respondent from our dataset. Response data is retained for a maximum of 36 months before anonymisation.

All Reality Check responses, poll votes, and engagement signals are anonymous by design. There is no account system for public participants. Session tokens are cryptographically signed and cannot be linked to any personal identity.

We comply with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). We do not sell, share, or license individual-level data to any third party — commercial, political, or governmental.

We use Google Analytics (IP anonymisation enabled), PostHog (privacy-safe product analytics), and optionally Meta Pixel for awareness campaigns. Each can be opted out of via browser settings.

Any registered candidate contesting a public office in Nigeria may submit a manifesto for publication on Naija Reality. Submission is free. We do not charge for publication and no party receives preferential placement.

All manifesto submissions are reviewed by our editorial team before publication. We verify: (a) the candidate's identity matches public electoral records; (b) the document does not contain hate speech, defamatory content, or fabricated statistics; (c) the candidate confirms it is their own work.

We reserve the right to decline any submission that violates our community standards. Declined submissions are notified in writing with reasons. We do not publish rejected submissions without candidate consent.

Published manifestos are permanent public records and will not be removed after elections, as they form the basis of promise tracking accountability.

Promise tracker records are compiled from publicly verifiable sources only: official government releases, verified news coverage, Hansard records, and official budget documents. We do not accept unverifiable sources.

Promise statuses are updated by our research team based on evidence, not opinion. Citizens may flag discrepancies via our contact form. Every flagged item is reviewed within 72 hours.

We apply the same verification standard to all office holders regardless of party. A delivered promise requires the same quality of evidence regardless of which administration made it.

We clearly distinguish between "admin verified" updates (confirmed by our team with evidence) and "citizen reported" flags (submitted by users, pending review).

All polls are published with their full methodology: question wording, response options, scope (national/state/demographic), closing date, and total verified responses.

Poll results reflect citizen participation — not a scientific sample. We clearly label all results with this disclaimer and never present poll data as representative of all Nigerians.

We do not selectively publish poll results. All completed polls are archived and publicly accessible regardless of how "unfavourable" the result may appear to any party or government.

Sponsored polls — where an approved research partner funds the poll question — are clearly labeled as sponsored. The sponsor has no editorial control over question wording, response options, or result framing.

Reality Check and poll responses are protected by six layers: minimum completion time (45s), session deduplication, IP hash rate limiting, honeypot fields, trust score algorithm (≥0.6 threshold), and statistical anomaly detection.

When we detect a coordinated manipulation attempt — whether from a political actor, commercial entity, or individual — we quarantine the affected batch, investigate, and publish a transparency notice within 72 hours if the attempt was significant.

The Reality Check survey is structured (multiple choice), not open text. Poll responses are also structured. Manifesto and evidence submissions are reviewed before publication. These design choices minimise the need for reactive content moderation.

We maintain an internal moderation log. Content is never removed based on political sensitivity — only for verified manipulation, harassment, or community standards violations.

No member of the Naija Reality editorial or research team may be an active member of a political party, a registered candidate for office, or employed by a political organisation while working on platform content.

All funding sources for Naija Reality are disclosed annually. We do not accept funding from political parties, sitting governments, electoral management bodies, or entities with a declared political interest in our output.

Any prospective funder, research partner, or institutional sponsor must agree in writing that they have no editorial influence over the platform's methodology, data presentation, or conclusions.

Smart Tech World provides technology infrastructure and product development support for the Naija Reality platform. This includes server architecture, software development, database management, and platform maintenance.

Smart Tech World does not have editorial influence over Naija Reality's civic data, methodology, reporting standards, poll questions, manifesto review decisions, promise tracking assessments, or any public-facing content.

Naija Reality's civic independence — its neutrality, its methodology, and its editorial standards — is designed to be structurally separate from Smart Tech World's technical role. The relationship is analogous to a technology service provider and its client.

Smart Tech World is credited as technology infrastructure provider in the platform footer and relevant documentation. It does not have a stake in any data outcome or political direction.

If we publish incorrect data — whether from a processing error, a miscategorised response, or a flawed methodology — we will correct it publicly, prominently, and immediately upon discovery.

Corrections are not hidden in footnotes. They are published on the same page as the original data, clearly labeled as a correction, with an explanation of what changed and why.

We will not knowingly publish misleading framing, selective statistics, or data visualisations designed to create false impressions. Where data is ambiguous or limited, we say so.

Anyone who identifies a data error, a misleading presentation, or a factual inaccuracy may contact us at corrections@naijareality.org. We commit to a response within 48 hours.