The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said on Tuesday the number of Nigeria’s registered voters surpassed that of 14 other countries in West Africa by 19 million.
Yakubu, who spoke when the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and West Africa, Samuela Isopi, visited him at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, said Nigeria had over 93 million registered voters during the 2023 general election while the rest of West Africa had 74 million.
He said INEC would continue to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to further enhance the country’s electoral process and deepen democracy.
Yakubu said: “There are 74 million registered voters in West Africa. In 2023, we had 93 million registered workers in Nigeria, which is almost 10 million more than the other 14 countries put together.
“So each time Nigerians go to the polls, it’s like conducting elections for the whole of West Africa and part of Central Africa.
“For instance, Nigeria registered about 119,000 voters in Edo State alone, and an additional 55,000 in Ondo State, totaling 177,000 new voters. In contrast, Ghana registered only 70,000 new voters nationwide during a similar exercise.
“In fact, recently, the Electoral Commission in Ghana conducted the equivalent of what we call the Continuous Voter Registration.
“In Ghana, they call it a mock-up to enable citizens who have come of age or those who could not register for one reason or another in the past to register.
“One of the targets of the Electoral Commission in Ghana was to register 70,000 new voters nationwide. But here, in the last Continuous Voter Registration in Edo State alone, we registered 119,000 new voters.”
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