The Northern part of Nigeria, precisely the Northwest has been a major determining factor in deciding which candidate or political party emerges victorious in a general election over time. It will interest you to note that based on the information gotten from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at the end of the Continuous Voter Registration which ended on July 31st, it was gathered that a total of 12.29 million Nigerianscompletely registered and were captured in the updated electoral register. The electoral register as of 2019 stood at 84 million.
At the end of the CVR, based on information and statistics gotten from INEC, records show that 71.4% of the electorates who completed their registration were between the age bracket of 18-34 years, making a total of 8.87 million. Before the end of the exercise, some states experience a massive turnout of Nigerians who came out to register to get their Permanent Voters Card also known as PVC ahead of the 2023 general elections. In the Northwest, these three states recorded the highest number of registered voters. They include:
1. Kano State – (6,026,850 registered voters)
At the end of the suspended Continuous Voter Registration, Kano State emerged as the number one state in the Northwest region with the highest number of registered voters. A total of 569,103 new voters completely registered during the exercise. In 2019, Kano State had 5.45 million registered voters in the electoral register, but with the recently concluded CVR exercise, the state now has a total of 6.02 million registered voters making it the second state in the country with the highest number of registered voters. Lagos State remains number one. With about 7 million voters.
2. Kaduna State – (4,411,723 registered voters)
Kaduna is the second on the list of states with the highest number of registered voters in the Northwestern region. It will interest you to note that in 2019, the state had a total of 3.93 million voters on the electoral register. At the end of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), 479,231 new voters were added to the register making a total of 4.4 million eligible voters.
3. Katsina State – (3,570,740 Registered Voters)
Katsina State is the third state on the list. It will interest you to note that in 2019, the state had 3.2 million registered voters according to statistics from INEC. At the end of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise, 340,510 new eligible voters were added to the register making a total of 3.57 million voters.
At the end of the day, it implies that these three states alone have about 14,009,313 eligible registered voters ahead of the 2023 general elections. It means that any political party or candidate that can woo these 3 states to their side will be getting nothing less than 14 million votes. From analysis, it will interest you to note that the Northwest remains the vote bank of political parties because of the high number of registered voters in the region. The APC, PDP, LP, and NNPP will be struggling to gain control of the region.
