Insecurity: Nigerian Teenager Unveils Offline Rescue App
Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
A Nigerian-German teenager has developed an offline rescue APP “SafeLink” to help give members using the app and security agency real time information about kidnappings or terrorists attacks.
The 18 years old Nigerian-German entrepreneur, Georgia Oviesu, on Thursday in Lagos, unveiled the app with a live demonstration of the SafeLink, an emergency communication application designed to enable users to send distress messages without internet connectivity.
Oviesu said she developed the application after identifying a gap between the occurrence of a security emergency and the arrival of rescue. Citing insecurity and disasters in different parts of the world to underscore the need for faster emergency communication.
“Every year millions of people around the world lose their lives to natural disasters, kidnappings, building collapse. Why do you ever ask yourself that question?” she asked.
“Look at Nigeria. Since 2023, we have had over two million kidnappings. The math is absurd. Valencia, Spain, flash floods that killed 238 people. Brazil, more than 6,000 kidnapping cases since 2023. Philippines recently just had a building collapse, killing 30 civilians. Australia, 2019 to 2020, 479. Somehow, Nigeria was able to triple that amount of people. Why?
“We need to ask ourselves, why? Why are we so conditioned to accepting these deaths?” she queried.
In her explanations, the app’s features include sending SOS messages to nearby devices, displaying calming messages to survivors, notifying people within the vicinity when a user is in distress, recording information provided by survivors, transmitting a user’s location and coordinates to nearby rescuers, and repeatedly sending emergency messages for up to 30 minutes.
The Android application uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh technology to allow devices within range to communicate directly with one another without relying on Wi-Fi, mobile networks or internet connectivity.
Oviesu explained that users are required to register their details on the application, including their name, age, height and other relevant information, which can be accessed by designated rescuers when an SOS alert is triggered.
In her presentation she highlighted the potential relevance of the technology to Nigeria, where internet connectivity can be unreliable, as well as to emergencies beyond building collapses, including natural disasters, seizures, heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies.
Oviesu urged Nigerians, potential partners security agencies to support the development and deployment of the application.
“What I need from that right now from Nigeria as a whole, or from the public, is partners, people who want to help, not just for profit of themselves.
“This is meant to help the poor, people who need saving. Most people kidnapped in Nigeria, the people who are suffering, are not the rich. They are the poor”.
“So I do not want to hear, why didn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do that? Because everything I did here today, the functions are for the poor. That is why it is so simplified,” she said.
On why she developed a rescue app that works without internet connectivity she
said the idea came from a long-standing desire to help people, combined with her exposure to computer science, coding and computational thinking through the International Baccalaureate programme.
“In my course, we have to create an app, every single one of us, every student in my grade. We have to create an app,” she noted.
When asked, how SafeLink could practically be deployed to address insecurity and kidnapping,
She described a community-based emergency response model in which SOS alerts would be broadcast to devices within the user’s vicinity.
“Part of the reason why I created this app was to foster community. I believe that Nigerian community needs to be stronger, we need to be more united. So what did I do? I made it like this.
“Everybody in your vicinity can be able to receive your message, your SOS message.
“The thing is that every single Nigerian can have this app,” she added
Oviesu explained that “the application could send emergency messages to nearby devices and potentially connect users with relevant authorities and people within their communities.”
According to her, she envisioned partnerships with police stations and security agencies so that kidnapping and other emergency alerts could reach authorities real time.
Sumbo Ojukotola, Deputy Director, Special Correctional Centre for Girls, Sumbo Ojukotola asked where Oviesu would draw the line when partnering with government institutions, particularly amid concerns that government agencies or other partners could make suggestions that might eventually lead to them taking control of the innovation.
Oviesu said she was open to constructive suggestions and partnerships., “Development without criticism is not development. It’s just you withholding your idea.
“I’m very open to criticism,” she said.
Ojukotola also asked how SafeLink could distinguish genuine SOS alerts from fake or false emergencies.
She explained that the application has separate registration processes for users and rescuers, meaning emergency alerts can be directed to registered rescuers.
Data protection and public adoption she noted that users data are protected and highly secured in the cloud and cannot be compromised. “Information is stored in the cloud and is accessible only through my specific login.”
She called on the Federal Government, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), security agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stakeholders and other relevant authorities to partner with her on the development and deployment of the application.