On the 25th of November 2022, “Bless mi” was launched by top members of Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). The vision of the app, according to the party, is to support the upcoming Presidential election campaigns. Only, it is not an app.
In a tweet, the Lagos state governor, also a member of the party said, they were launching a “fundraising app.” However, our search for Bless Mi on Google play and App store did not prove useful. We discovered eventually that instead of launching an app, the party went on to make use of a fundraising website, Bless Mi for the campaign fund support. This raises the question of whether or not the political party understands the meaning of a mobile application.
Pictures from the launch also do not specify that Bless Mi is a website as party faithfuls photographed at the launch also pose like they are showing off a mobile app. While it is not clear whether the APC did submit an app to Google play or App store, Bless Mi is also touted as a “crowdfunding channel” and is QR enabled.
The target of the fundraiser is 5 billion Naira, and it welcomes all willing Nigerians to contribute. Counting from the day of its release, the Bless Mi APC fundraiser channel has been active for 14 days. Contributions will keep pouring in for the next 76 days, giving the party and its followers 3 months to hit their target.
So far, over 26 million Naira has been raised from the generous contributions of Nigerians who support APC’s vision. But, considering the 5 billion naira target, the fundraising initiative is still far from accomplishing its goal. As a country, we are a few months away from the presidential elections and various parties are calling on citizens to support their various courses.
Contributions made on the channel can be done both openly and anonymously to help protect user identity.
