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Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) registered a total of 67,764,327 million Nigerians during the just concluded
national voter registration exercise, the final list released has shown.

The electoral body is presently undertaking a review exercise to
ensure that there are no missing data or duplication of registration. Barring
any major changes after the review, the figure represents the number of
Nigerians expected to cast their votes during April polls across the country.
According to the data, states with the highest number of prospective voters
include two of Nigeria’s most populated states, Lagos and Kano. Lagos leads the
pack with a total of 6.2 million registered voters.

It is followed by Kano which has 5.1 million; Kaduna, with 3.5
million; Katsina, with 2.9million; Borno, with 2.7 million; Oyo, with
2.5million; Rivers, with 2.4million and Sokoto, with a total of 2million
registered voters.

These figures, released pending the removal of any duplicated
registration, were obtained from the INEC voters’ return register exclusively
obtained by NEXT.

It shows that Bayelsa is the state with the lowest number of voters,
with a total of 472, 389 registered prospective voters; followed by Niger
state, with 721,478; Ekiti, with 750,753 and the Federal Capital Territory with
886, 323.

The figure shows that the fight for votes is likely to be fierce
in high populated northwest and southwest states. Of the populous states, PDP
is in power in Kaduna, Oyo, Katsina, Sokoto and Rivers States respectively. The
All Nigeria Peoples Party is the ruling party in Borno and Kano States while
the Action Congress of Nigeria rules Lagos. The recently established Congress
of Progressive Change is however likely to create upset in some states in the
northwest.

The registration exercise, which started on the 15th – 29th of
January 2011 was characterised by numerous hitches which might have been the
cause of the low figures recorded in some parts of the country.

Release date is March

In places such as the FCT, some centres witnessed massive
turnout of prospective voters who were eager to register, some out of the
responsibility of carrying out their civic duties while others out of fear that
they might be asked for the voters’ cards at their places of work. But poor
performance of equipment and other logistical challenges made it impossible for
many to register.

Chastened, INEC asked the National Assembly for a one week
extension, which was granted. But this was not enough to register the throng of
people who queued for days and nights to register, for fear of being
disenfranchised.

The electoral body also announced a two-day extension of the
registration process, which was to only apply to areas that had recorded some
form of crises since the beginning of the exercise.

The voters’ registration return list, which was compiled on the February 16,
is to be released on March 2. A breakdown of the data shows that more Nigerians
were registered between the fourth and eleventh days of the exercise, when over
4 million people registered daily. It later tapered off towards the last days,
when the number of registered voters were just in the hundreds of thousands.