Nigerian Polling Units

ngpu is a Python and R programming library that provides hierarchical intelligence over Nigeria’s polling unit administrative structure, designed specifically for machine learning, analytics, and research workflows.

Features

• Programmatic access to States, LGAs, Wards, and Polling Units
• ML-ready DataFrame export
• Hierarchical categorical encoders
• Coverage and bias diagnostics
• Fuzzy search for noisy text inputs

Installation

For Python Users: Run in notebook or IDE

pip install ngpu

For R Users: Run in terminal or Anaconda Prompt

conda create -n ngpu-r -c conda-forge python=3.10 ngpu r-base r-reticulate pandas scikit-learn

This installs:

Python

ngpu

R

reticulate

ML dependencies

Quick Start

from ngpu import Index, to_dataframe

states = Index.states()
lgas = Index.lgas("Anambra")

df = to_dataframe()

Connecting R to ngpu

Open R or RStudio.

library(reticulate)

use_condaenv("ngpu-r", required = TRUE)

ngpu <- import("ngpu")

Machine Learning Usgae

from ngpu.ml.encoder import PollingUnitEncoder

encoder = PollingUnitEncoder(level="ward")
X = encoder.fit_transform(df)

Coverage Diagnostics

from ngpu.ml.diagnostics import CoverageReport

report = CoverageReport(df)
report.coverage_by_state()

Use Cases

Regional ML feature engineering

Bias and coverage analysis

Socio-economic modeling

Civic tech and policy research

Any domain requiring stable Nigerian administrative anchors

In Python

List all states:

from ngpu import Index

states = Index.states()
print(states)

⬆ Validate categorical values in incoming datasets.

Get LGAs for a state:

lgas = Index.lgas("Enugu")
print(lgas)

⬆ Fill missing LGA values during data cleaning.

Get wards and polling units

wards = Index.wards("Enugu", "Awgu")
pus = Index.polling_units("Enugu", "Awgu", "Ward 1")

⬆ Hierarchical drill-down analysis.

Converting to a DataFrame:

df = ngpu.to_dataframe()
df.head()

Join with survey data

Join with transaction data

Feature engineering pipelines

Problem

Dataset contains:

state Missing lga, ward, polling_unit

Solution

import pandas as pd

data = pd.DataFrame({
    "state": ["Lagos", "Kano"]
})

ngpu_df = ngpu.to_dataframe()

enriched = data.merge(ngpu_df, on="state", how="left")

Result:

All valid LGAs, wards, and polling units are added

No manual mapping required

Machine Learning

Hierarchical Encoding

from ngpu.ml import PollingUnitEncoder

encoder = PollingUnitEncoder()

encoded = encoder.fit_transform(
    state="Lagos",
    lga="Ikeja",
    ward="Ward 1",
    polling_unit="PU 001"
)

print(encoded)

Use Case

Converts hierarchy into numeric features

Compatible with scikit-learn models

ML Pipeline

from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split

X = ngpu_df[["state", "lga", "ward"]]
y = ngpu_df["polling_unit"]

encoder = PollingUnitEncoder()
X_encoded = encoder.fit_transform_df(X)

X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(
    X_encoded, y, test_size=0.2
)

model = RandomForestClassifier()
model.fit(X_train, y_train)

Data Validation & Diagnostics

from ngpu.ml import HierarchyDiagnostics

diag = HierarchyDiagnostics()

diag.validate(
    state="Lagos",
    lga="Gwale"
)

Returns:

True → valid

False → invalid

Use Case:

Detect bad records before training

Prevent invalid inference

In R

states <- ngpu$Index$states()
print(states)

⬆ Validate state names in a dataset before analysis.

lgas <- ngpu$Index$lgas("Lagos")
print(lgas)

⬆ Fill missing LGAs when only state information exists.

df <- ngpu$to_dataframe()
df_r <- py_to_r(df)

head(df_r)

⬆ Join ngpu data with survey, transaction, or demographic datasets.

Problem:

You have a dataset with: state missing lga, ward, polling_unit

Solution:

library(dplyr)

data <- data.frame(
  state = c("Lagos", "Kano")
)

ngpu_df <- py_to_r(ngpu$to_dataframe())

enriched <- data %>%
  left_join(ngpu_df, by = "state")

head(enriched)

Dataset is automatically expanded with valid LGAs, wards, and polling units.

Machine Learning Usage

encoder <- ngpu$PollingUnitEncoder()

encoded <- encoder$fit_transform(
  state = "Taraba",
  lga = "Jalingo",
  ward = "Ward 7",
  polling_unit = "PU 007"
)

print(encoded)

Convert categorical hierarchy into numeric ML-ready features

Used in regression, classification, and clustering.

Use with caret/tidymodels

library(caret)

ml_df <- ngpu_df %>%
  select(state, lga, ward) %>%
  mutate(across(everything(), as.factor))

model <- train(
  ward ~ .,
  data = ml_df,
  method = "rf"
)

Predict missing administrative attributes Learn regional patterns

Data Validation & Diagnotstics

diag <- ngpu$HierarchyDiagnostics()

diag$validate(
  state = "Lagos",
  lga = "Gwale"
)

Returns:

TRUE → valid

FALSE → impossible combination

Use case:

Catch data errors before modeling Prevent garbage-in-garbage-out ML

Common Errors & Fixes

Error: ModuleNotFoundError

use_condaenv("ngpu-r", required = TRUE)

Error: Wrong Python

py_config()

Ensure it points to ngpu-r.

Authors:

MaryBlessing Umeh, Software Engineer

Chidiebere V. Christopher, Data Scientist

LICENSE

MIT