Inec 2007 Information on Voters Registered by State March 24, 2007 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)

 

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Information on Voters Registered by INEC

As Of Close of All Registration

As announced by INEC on February 15, 2006

 

Compiled by NigerianMuse.com

 

 

S/N	STATE	No. of Registration Units	Registered Voters	Comment	Registered In 2003 Elections	Registered In 1999 Elections
		In 2006	At close of Electronic Registration Friday December 15, 2006	At close of ALL registration (as announced February 15, 2007)
SW
1	Ekiti	2,195	157,927	771,228	981,753
2.	Lagos	8,465	897,474	4,204,000	4,558,216
3.	Ogun	3,210	354,782	1,466,308	1,576,875
4.	Ondo	3,009	265,109	1,356,779	1,504,181
5.	Osun	3,010	266,531	1,297,297	1,367,627
6.	Oyo	4,783	322,410	1,793,475	2,209,953
	SubTotal	24,672	2,264,233	10,889,087	12,198,605
SE
7	Abia	2,676	????	1,365,641	1,285,428
8.	Anambra	4,623	195,958	1,844,819	1,859,795
9.	Ebonyi	1,784	122,485	929,375	1,002,771
10.	Enugu	2,958	141,872	1,201,697	1,479,542
11.	Imo	3,523	245,718	1,372,975	1,630,494
	SubTotal SE	15,564	706,033	6,714,507	7,258,030
SS
12.	Akwa Ibom	2,982	255,965	1,408,197	1,624,495
13	Bayelsa	1,805	102,073	955,279	765,472
14.	Cross River	2,283	211,235	1,139,735	1,289,192
15.	Delta	3,625	311,727	1,626,930	1,607,337
16.	Edo	2,629	397,180	1,345,410	1,432,891
17.	Rivers	4,441	274,624	2,585,317	2,272,238
	SubTotal SS	17,765	1,552,804	9,060,868	8,991,625
NW
18.	Jigawa	3,527	270,557	1,722,352	1,636,657
19.	Kaduna	5,108	407,442	3,374,245	2,620,999
20.	Kano	8,074	882,139	4,072,597	4,000,430
21.	Katsina	4,896	443,422	2,589,047	2,567,245
22.	Kebbi	2,398	184,557	1,345,047	1,343,549
23.	Sokoto	3,035	196,781	1,409,337	1,476,691
24.	Zamfara	2,516	191,279	1,330,573	1,515,622
	SubTotal NW	29,554	2,576,177	15,843,198	15,161,193
NE
25.	Adamawa	2,609	215,413	1,315,950	1,280,204
26.	Bauchi	4,074	247,341	2,211,463	2,130,557
27.	Borno	3,933	367,262	2,191,902	2,156,019
28.	Gombe	2,218	315,305	1,410,234	1,263,287
29.	Taraba	1,911	220,561	1,173,514	1,026,950
30.	Yobe	1,714	190,494	996,380	966,749
	SubTotal NE	16,459	1,556,376	9,299,443	8,823,766
NC
31.	Benue	3,691	229,404	2,150,515	1,755,528
32.	Kogi	2,548	137,823	1,479,834	1,158,343
33.	Kwara	1,872	156,736	1,216,478	995,882
34.	Nasarawa	1,495	144,555	1,001,423	852,626
35.	Niger	3,187	237,484	1,551,903	1,607,730
36.	Plateau	2,631	175,264	1,602,530	1,391,594
	SubTotal NC	15,424	1,081,266	9,002,683	7,761,703
37.	FCT	562	350,913	756,862	628,100
	GRAND TOTAL	120,000	10,087,802	61,566,648	8,389,803
	SUMMARY
	SW	24,672	2,264,233	10,889,087	12,198,605
	SE	15,564	706,033	6,714,507	7,258,030
	SS	17,765	1,552,804	9,060,868	8,991,625
	Total South	58,001	4,523,070	26,664,462	28,448,260
	NW	29,554	2,576,177	15,843,198	15,161,193
	NE	16,459	1,556,376	9,299,443	8,823,766
	NC	15,424	1,081,266	9,002,683	7,761,703
	Total North	61,437	5,213,819	34,145,324	31,746,662
	FCT	562	350,913	756,862	628,100
	Total North + FCT	61,999	5,564,732	34,902,186	32,374,762
	Total Country	120,000	10,087,802	61,566,648	60,823,022	57,938,945

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*INEC puts the total number for 2006 as 61, 567,036, but the numbers given do not quite add up.

**The table of  INEC Distribution of Senatorial Districts, Federal and State Constituencies, Electoral Wards, Polling States - and Estimates of Voter Machines Needed  will be found here:

 

http://www.nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/?u=INEC_Distribution_of_Constituencies_Wards_Polling_Stations.htm 

 

Also see:  http://www.dawodu.com/aluko40.htm  For some 2003 data

 

 

 

Compiled by NigerianMuse.com

Sources:  Various

 

 

 

 

VANGUARD

 

As INEC releases population of voters: The pattern of how Nigerians will vote

By Bolade Omonijo, Deputy Political Editor
Posted to the Web: Saturday, February 17, 2007

THURSDAY’S release of the state-by-state breakdown of registered voters nation-wide has raised many questions again. Coming soon after the census figures which put the total population of Nigeria at 140 million, there have ben concerns over the conduct of the registration exercise and the state-by-state breakdown.

A zonal analysis of the figures indicate that, following the pattern established by the census, the North-West has the largest number of voters in the country. Kano, which had been controversially thrown up as the most populous in the country, was credited with 4,072,597 voters, Kaduna, 3,374,245, Katsina 2,589,047 and Jigawa 1,722,352. Sokoto’s voting population was put at 1,409,337,  Kebbi 1,345,435 and Zamfara 1,330,573. The total voting population of the seven North-West states therefore stood at 15,843,586.

Next to the North-West are the six states in the South-West, boosted as it were, by the population of voters in Lagos. Lagos was credited with 4,204,000 voters, the highest in the country; Oyo 1,793,475, Ogun 1,466,308 and Ondo 1,356,779. Osun’s voters population was put at 1,297,297 while Ekiti recorded the least number of voters at 771,228. The total size of the electorate in the South-West stood at 10,889,087.

The North-East followed with a total voting population of 9,299,443. Bauchi was credited with the largest voting population of 2,211,463, Borno 2,191,902, Gombe 1,410,234, Adamawa 1,315,950, Taraba 1,173,514 and Yobe 996,380.
The North-Central which was credited with a voters’ population of 9,002,683 had the following breakdown: Benue 2,150,515; Plateau 1,602,530; Niger 1,551,903; Kogi 1,479,834; Kwara 1,216,478 and Nasarawa 1,001,423.

The six states of the Niger-Delta grouped under the South-South geo-political zone recorded 9,060,868 with Rivers leading the way with 2,585,317 followed by Delta with 1,626,930. Akwa Ibom was credited with 1,408,197, Edo with a figure of 1,345,410, Cross River with 1,139,735 and Bayelsa with 955,279.

As was the case with the census, the South-East was said to have had the least number of registered voters. Only 6,714,507 voters were said to have been registered in the zone. Anambra had the highest number of voters registered with 1,844,819, Imo1,372,975, and Abia 1,365,641. Enugu was credited with 1,201,697 and Ebonyi 929,375.

While the North-West’s population had been put at 35,786,944 and voters at 15,843,586 or 44.3 per cent of the population, the 10.9 million voters recorded for the South-West is 39.5 per cent of the 27.6 million population recorded for the zone by the census. The North-East voting population of 9.3 million amounts to 49 per cent of the 18.98 million people said to reside in the zone.

Also, the North-Central’s over 9 million voters account for 44.4 per cent of the 20.27 million population.
The South-South’s 8.96 million voters account for 42.6 per cent of the 21 million people while the South-East’s 6.71 voters are 40.98 per cent of the total population of the zone which the 2006 census put at 16.38 million.

By the distribution, Kano and Kaduna states in the North-West have 7,446,842 million voters to the entire South-East’s 6,714,507. The North-West has more than 25 per cent of the entire voters registered while the South-East has about 12 per cent. The total Northern voting population standing at 34.15 million is 56 per cent of the population while the South’s 26.6 million voters amount to 44 per cent of the voters.

Without doubt, these figures released by INEC are sure to trigger off fresh controversies as the elections draw nearer. One, is it possible that the number of voters in just Kaduna and Kano states are more than the total number of voters in the entire South-East? These are puzzles that people will seek answers to in the coming days.

It is no longer in dispute  that electoral malpractices start with manipulation of the voters registration. This was the reason given by INEC in insisting on electronic registration of voters. By the system, only voters who presented themselves at the registration centres had any chance of being enrolled for the sacred duty of deciding the next set of rulers of the country. The Direct Data Capture machines used for the exercise, according to INEC officials, represent the most technologically advanced in the world. The insufficiency of the machines affected the conduct of the exercise whose results were presented Thursday.
Prof. Maurice Iwu, chairman of INEC, at the stakeholders summit held last August insisted that no credible election could be conducted with the voters register used for the 1999 and 2003 elections.

Perhaps, the worst election conducted in the history of the country was in 1983. Whereas the size of Nigeria’s voters in 1979 had been put at 48 million, the figure, barely three years after was said to have jumped to 65 million, about 35 per cent increase. By 1999, the voters size had “shrunk” to 58 million. The figures were the more absurd when it is noted that the projected population of Nigeria in 1979 on which basis national resources were shared was put at 55.6 million, yet, 48.6 million Nigerians were reportedly registered. At an annual growth rate of 3 per cent, the population would have grown to 61 million in 2003, but 65 million Nigerians were said to have been registered

An analysis of the 1983 voters register would further illustrate the problem usually encountered in such exercises. In 1979, the voters figures of the nine states later controlled by the National Party of Nigera were Sokoto 3,818,094, Kaduna 3,455,047, Bauchi2,096,162, Cross River 2,464,184, Rivers 1,675,934, Niger 1,051,160 and Kwara 1,108,029. The total for the nine states stood at 15,668,610.
But, by 1983, the total figures for the states had jumped to 23,462,918, a difference of 7,794,308 or a 49.74 per cent increase.

In comparison, the LOOBO states controlled by the Unity Party of Nigeria which was the leading opposition party of that era had a total of 12.94 million voters in 1979 and 15.445 in 1983, an increase of 2,503,238 voters or 19.34 per cent.

The Nigerian Peoples Party led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe controlled the two states in the South-East and Plateau in the North Central. The three states, Anambra, Imo and Plateau, in 1979 had 7,846,015 voters and the figure had increased by 1,749,114 or 22.29 per cent by 1983.

The national average increase was 35 per cent. The North-West recorded a marked 56 per cent increase, 26 per cent increase in the North East and the Middle Belt 18 per cent.
Comparative figures for the South showed that the West recorded an increase of 15 per cent, the South East 32 per cent and the South South which was largely controlled by the NPN 47 per cent.

Under General Ibrahim Babangida, before the 1991 census which put Nigeria’s population at 88.5 million, the voters registration exercise had 79 million Nigerians registered, but with the announcement that the population stood at 88.5 million, the National Electoral Commission said only 39 million cards would be distributed to the states.

It is thus obvious that no one has got the registration right. Is the 2006/7 exercise any better? Can Nigerians believe that the population of Nigerians above the age of 18 stood at the level released by INEC? In what ways were Nigerians who would ordinarily have been registered shut out of the process? Is there any indication that materials were made more available in some states than the other? If the total registered voters in the South-East and the South-South are a little less than the registered voters in the North-West alone, how would this affect the 2007 elections? With the two far Northern zones, North-West and North-East having more voters than the entire South, the election’s direction might have been decided.

As Professor Iwu, chairman of INEC declared on Thursday at the National Forum, “I have the honour and the satisfaction to declare that with the successful introduction of the electronic voters register, Nigerians en masse will never have to queue up again in long lines merely to register to vote in elections. The era of registration of voters being a national event over which several productive hours are lost is now gone. This indeed, is progress.

“Henceforth, any citizen who turns 18 years of age will simply go into a registration office within his or her local government area and get registered. The exercise goes on round the year. In other words, registration of voters will no longer be a matter for two weeks or four weeks in every election year.

By this new system also, using the Direct Data Capture, we do not need to continue second-guessing whether the voter who comes forward to vote is the same person who registered to vote.

“It may be pertinent to point out here that the recently concluded registration of voters on the Direct Data Capture platform is the single largest rural computerization project anywhere in Africa, if not beyond. There is every reason therefore, for Nigeria to be proud of what it accomplished in this very exercise.

“Other aspects of preparation for the elections have progressed according to the strategic plan. By the end of this month, the Commission will take possession of the ballot boxes. Production of the ballot papers will soon commence, now that the political parties have the final list of their candidates for some of the elections.

“The decision by the Commission to have the picture of candidates in the ballot papers is informed by the need to make the ballot papers friendlier to the teaming illiterate segment of the electorate. The development also aims to discourage rigging. Henceforth, any person who sets out to print his own ballot papers must be ready to replicate the correct ballot papers with the approved pictures of all the candidates in all the constituencies he plans to rig in.

“As was the case with the voter registration exercise, the Commission is going the extra mile and incurring other costs in the production of ballot papers simply because we have a system that has been consistently undermined by unconscionable elements. The Commission is determined to stem the tide of these abuses of the electoral system and Nigerians must as a duty take up the challenge of standing up for what is right and repudiating values and conducts that are unwholesome.

“With barely 60 days to the Election Day, the political parties and their various candidates should deploy their campaigns not only to inform Nigerians on their policy thrusts and manifestoes but to also promote values and ethics that regenerate the society.

The electorate deserve to  know what the parties are offering them. They deserve to know what philosophy of development the parties represent.
“To have the main policy focus of a political party as bashing the electoral commission each day of the week is not only intriguing, it is pathetic. Indeed, many of the controversies that have been thrown up against the activities of the Commission cannot be justified beyond proclivity to cause confusion or at best, the pursuit of self-serving aspiration. No society makes progress under such yoke.

“To attempt as some groups have consistently done, to foist controversy on every policy and step taken to enthrone credibility in the electoral process tantamounts to sabotage against progress in the political system. It was preposterous, for instance, that the recent exercise of verifying the documents and claims made by candidates was visited with an amazing level of hair splitting. And yet, that was a function of the Commission not only inherent in its responsibility, but provided for by the law. The provision of the Electoral Act that stipulates that Nigerians can challenge in the courts the nomination of candidates who provide false information to the Commission has been twisted and expanded to override various sections of the 1999 Constitution, which clearly stipulates the criteria for eligibility and conditions for disqualification of candidates.

What happens if a candidate provides true information to INEC but is not eligible based on the criteria set out clearly in the Constitution? What other national institution or organization is charged with the responsibility of giving effect to provisions of the constitution that relate to “Registration of Voters or Conduct of Elections” as envisaged in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Is it necessary for us as a people to perennially envelop our environment in crisis simply because we are under a democratic order?

“The Commission is determined to usher in a new regime in the electoral process in the country. Already, the march is on. The political parties and other stakeholders in the system must be ready to play their own part for us to actualize the collective desire for a better future.

“As a part of the initiatives to achieve credibility and transparency in the 2007 polls, the Commission intends to have results tabulated at the polling centres. All relevant agents and officials at such centres will have and keep signed copies of the tabulated results, even as the results will be transmitted instantly to the appropriate locations for official announcements. The election results will exist in three forms;(a) forms signed by the electoral officer and (b) electronically-transferred result which will ensure that there is no distortion of the result through delay in transmission to collating centres and (c) original ballot papers which will be preserved for auditing and verification if need be.”

The taste of the pudding is in the eating. Only the conduct of a free and fair election decided by the votes of the people and neither discounted nor boosted in a cluster of states would show that the desired results have been achieved.