Chatham House: 2023 elections is the election for the young people in Nigeria – INEC Chair

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the 2023 general election is an election for the young people in Nigeria.

The INEC boss said about 75.39 per cent of registered voters in Nigeria are youth out of 93.4 million.

Yakubu disclosed this while speaking at Chatham House, London, in the United Kingdom on Tuesday.

Giving a breakdown of voter registration and collection of Permanent Voter Cards in Nigeria, Yakubu said records on the ground showed that the election would be dominated by the Nigerian youth.

Yakubu, who said he was encouraged by the turn-out of registered voters to collect their PVCs, said over 600,000 eligible voters collected their PVCs in Lagos alone within the last month.

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 of middle-aged 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 the number of PVCs collected on polling unit by polling unit basis nationwide.”

The INEC Chairman also said the commission is satisfied with the preparations done so far ahead of the 2023 elections.

“We have promised Nigerians and friends of Nigerians that the 2023 general election will be free, free and credible and we have left no stone unturned in preparing for it.

“But like with all elections, especially those requiring the extensive national deployment like we do in Nigeria, it will naturally come with challenges.

 “We have worked closely with stakeholders and development partners to confront these challenges and we are satisfied with our preparations so far.”

Lamenting the continuous attacks on its facilities nationwide, the INEC Chairman said despite the attacks, elections would hold.

He said, “In four years, 50 facilities were attacked in various parts of the country. The implication of the attacks is that we have to rebuild facilities and replace materials. The commission and security agencies have increased their presence in some of these locations. The last attack happened on Sunday last week but because of the cooperation between the military and the electoral commission, we were able to respond and the damage was limited to just a section of the building in a local government office.

“The commission has repeatedly called for concerted efforts to control and check these attacks and in December last year, the National Assembly held a public hearing on these attacks we hope that authorities have these attacks under control and the response by the security agencies is more coordinated.

“But despite these attacks, we will rebuild facilities and replace damaged and lost items and the elections will hold.”

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