The general election in 2023 would be a vote for Nigeria’s youth, according to Professor Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
At his address at Chatham House in London on Tuesday afternoon, Yakubu said records on the ground indicated that the election would be dominated by the Nigerian youth. He then provided a breakdown of voter registration and the collection of Permanent Voter Cards in Nigeria.
During 600,000 eligible voters acquired their PVCs in Lagos alone over the course of the past month, according to Yakubu, who expressed his encouragement at the turnout of registered voters to collect their PVCs.
The INEC boss stated that there are currently 93.4 million registered voters in Nigeria out of which 37 million, that is 39 per cent, are young people between the ages of 18 and 34.
“And then they’re closely followed by 33.4 million or 35.3 per cent middle-age voters between the ages of 35 and 49.
“Put together, these two categories constitute 75.39 per cent of registered voters in Nigeria. So, actually the 2023 election is the election of the young people, because they have the numbers. Even the majority of the PVCs collected are collected by young people,” Yakubu added.
“So, out of the 93.4 million, 70.4 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 49,” Yakubu stated.
He reminded the audience that the collection of the PVCs would end on January 29, adding that “we have to end it because before the election we will publish number of PVCs collected on polling unit by polling unit basis nationwide.”
