The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the impressive level of participation in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), particularly among young Nigerians, is proof that citizens still believe in the country’s electoral process.
INEC’s Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, dismissed recent claims suggesting Nigerians had lost faith in the system, describing them as baseless.
According to him, the CVR exercise, which began on August 18 with an online pre-registration option, has recorded encouraging numbers. Within the first seven hours of launch, over 69,000 Nigerians had registered, while the figure rose to 1.37 million in just one week. By September 1, the number had climbed to more than 2.53 million.
He explained that those who pre-registered online are required to complete the process physically at designated centres in line with the Electoral Act 2022. Within the first week of the in-person phase, which began on August 25, more than 72,000 people had finalized their registration. By the fifth week, the total number of Nigerians who had uploaded their details online reached over 5.38 million.
“In just one month of physical registration, nearly 765,000 Nigerians had completed the process,” Oyekanmi noted, adding that no other African country had recorded such high voter registration figures within the same period.
Beyond the CVR statistics, he pointed to the 2023 general election as evidence of progress in the electoral system. The poll, he said, produced the most diverse National Assembly since 1999, with seven political parties winning seats in the Senate and eight in the House of Representatives. Multiple parties also won governorship and state assembly seats.
Oyekanmi further highlighted that recent bye-elections underscored Nigerians’ continued faith in the process. He also criticized those who attack INEC while at the same time demanding the commission take over local government elections, saying such positions were contradictory.