Ten posts in, you’ve picked up a lot of vocabulary. Here it all is in one place, bookmark this one. Act — a bill that has completed the full legislative process and been signed into law. Assent — the President’s or Governor’s formal signature approving a bill into law. Bicameral — a legislature with two […]

Elections aren’t the only way a lawmaker’s time in office can end. Nigerian law provides a few other exits, some driven by fellow lawmakers, one driven directly by citizens. Impeachment-style removal, from within. This isn’t about removing an ordinary Senator or Representative by a simple vote of colleagues, it mainly applies to principal officers, most […]

Everything in this series has been building toward one practical question: who, specifically, represents you? Here’s exactly how to find out. Step 1: Know your state and your Local Government Area (LGA). Nigeria’s federal constituencies are built from LGAs, and your Senate seat is tied to your state (specifically, one of three senatorial districts within […]

Recall petitions and public hearings are dramatic. Most engagement with your lawmakers isn’t, and shouldn’t be, here are the everyday channels that actually exist. Constituency offices. Many Senators, Representatives, and State Assembly members maintain a local office or a regular presence in their constituency specifically to hear from residents. It’s worth asking around locally whether […]

We’ve mentioned “checks and balances” a few times in this series. Here’s the clean, side-by-side version of exactly how the legislature and the Executive check each other. The legislature’s checks on the Executive: The Executive’s checks on the legislature: Neither side is designed to dominate the other completely, that’s the entire point of separating them […]

The leaderboard is GLOW’s most visible feature, and the one most likely to be misread if you don’t know how to interpret it. Here’s how to read it responsibly. Remember what a score is actually built from: half completion rate (what percentage of a sponsor’s tracked projects are verified as completed), half average citizen rating. […]

You’ve submitted a report. It doesn’t show up on the project page yet, here’s exactly why, and what happens next. Why isn’t it live immediately? Every report is reviewed by a moderator before publishing. This isn’t distrust of you specifically, it’s the mechanism that keeps GLOW’s data trustworthy for everyone, the same reason a newsroom […]

Every report includes a 1-to-10 rating. It’s a small number with real weight, it feeds directly into a public leader’s score. Here’s how to give one fairly. Rate the work, not the politician. Your rating should reflect what you actually observed about the project itself, is it built, is it functional, does it match what […]

A report is only as convincing as its evidence. Here’s how to make yours count. For photos: For audio: One thing that helps regardless of format: be specific in your written description too. “It’s not good” tells a moderator nothing. “The roof is missing entirely and the walls show visible cracking on the east side” […]

Not every project has made it onto GLOW yet, especially as the app expands into new states. Here’s how to add one yourself. Before you start, gather what you can: Step 1: Go to the Add a Project page and log in if you haven’t already. Step 2: Fill in what you know. Only a […]