Ahead of the presidential, governorship and parliamentary elections slated for February and March, figures show Lagos with the highest number of would-be voters. Kano follows it.
Ekiti and Bayelsa are credited with the least number of eligible voters in the general election.
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Wednesday at the presentation of the electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter register to leaders of political parties in Abuja.
Lagos has the highest number of voters with 7, 060,195, followed by Kano with 5,921,370 and Kaduna with 4,335,208 registered voters. Ekiti has the least registered voters with 987,647, followed by Bayelsa with 1,056,862 and Yobe with 1,485,146 registered voters.
“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 general election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5 per cent) are male, while 44,414,846 (47.5 per cent) are female. The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65 per cent ) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75 per cent ) are middle-aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49,” the INEC chair revealed.
Mr Yakubu added that 17,700,270 (18.94 per cent ) “are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66 per cent) are senior citizens aged 70 and above.”
In terms of occupational distribution, the register shows that students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8 per cent) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8 per cent ) farmers/fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9 per cent) housewives.
The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5 per cent ) persons with albinism, 13,387 (15.7 per cent ) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5 per cent) are blind,” said Mr Yakubu.
He stated that the softcopy of the breakdown and analysis would be uploaded to the INEC website and social media platforms.
