January 12, 2023/CSL Research
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman yesterday presented the 2023 voter register to the political parties ahead of the elections as required by the 2022 Electoral Act. In attendance at the meeting were leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), amongst others. The commission presented a register containing 93,469,008 voters for the 2023 general elections.
The age distribution of the voters are as follows; young people between the ages of 18 and 34 made up 39.65%(37,060,399), 33,413,591 (35.75%) are middle aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49 and elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 make up 18.94% (17,700,270) , while 5,294,748 (5.66%) are senior citizens aged 70 and above. The INEC chairman noted that with the presentation of the voter register, the commission has successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities scheduled for the 2023 general elections. He noted that other arrangements are going on smoothly including the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
Further breakdown of the register shows that with 7,060,195 registered voters, Lagos tops the list of states with the highest number voters while Kano trails with 5,921,370. Ekiti has the least number of voters with 502,251. The Northwest zone has the highest number of registered voters with 22,255,562 followed by the Southwest with 17,958,966 voters while the Southeast with 10,907,606.is the zone with the lowest number of voters. In terms of occupational distribution, students constitute the largest category, making up 27.8% (26,027,481) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8%) farmers/fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9%) housewives.
The commission noted that 9,518,188 new voters were added to the previous register used for the 2019 elections. In our view, the increase in youth participation is a fall out of the EndSARS movement and an indication that the youth will participate actively in the elections, implying that the elections and its outcome will likely be determined by them. This also means that any serious contestant or party must actively engage the young people and seek to address their concerns. Peter Obi of the Labour party appears to be at the forefront in this regard.
That said, despite the increase in the voter register, we note that Nigeria’s election in recent years has been marred by low turnouts of voters on election day. Nigeria’s voter turnout in the 2019 general election was about 35% and this has been attributed to many factors. One of the main obstacles to achieving higher voter turnout is INEC’s failure to effectively distribute the necessary PVCs to Nigerians.
The process of collecting these PVCs is usually cumbersome, involving long hours of waiting and this has continued to affect the efficiency of the electioneering process. Other factors responsible for low voter turnout at elections include persistent insecurity, voter intimidation, and a general lack of enthusiasm as many do not believe the process will be free and fair. We however hope that the youth can walk the talk in the forthcoming elections.
