Not up to 19 per cent (<19%) of Lagos State voters with Permanent Voter Cards came out to vote in the governorship and state legislative elections, according to statistics obtained by Sunday Punch.
By virtue of the statistics released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, out of the 6.5 million registered voters in Lagos State, 5.5 million obtained the PVCs.
INEC guidelines state that only persons with the PVCs are allowed to vote, which means the 5.5 million persons would have been eligible to cast their ballots on Election Day.
However, figures released by INEC showed that only 1,006,074 actually voted during the general elections, representing 18.29 per cent of the 5.5 million voters with the PVCs in the state.
The winner of the governorship election, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress, garnered 739, 445 votes, indicating that less than 14 per cent of Lagosians with the PVCs voted for him.
The turnout of voters in the governorship and state House of Assembly polls was lower than the presidential and National Assembly elections held two weeks earlier.
The total number of accredited voters during the presidential election in Lagos was 1,196, 490, which was higher than the turnout in the governorship election by 190, 416.
From the data gathered from various state results, Jigawa recorded the highest voter turnout in the March 9 polls at 72 per cent. No fewer than 1, 169, 925 persons voted out of the 1, 625, 721 persons with the PVCs.
Sokoto has the second highest voter turnout as 60 per cent of persons with the PVCs were accredited to vote in the elections which were later declared inconclusive.
About 1, 033, 081 persons were accredited to vote out of the 1, 726, 887 with the PVCs. The figure is expected to rise as a supplementary election will hold on March 23.
Crisis-ridden Borno State, which has been battling insurgency for the last nine years, recorded a voter turnout of 1,292,138 out of the 2, 244, 376 persons with the PVC. This constitutes over 57 per cent voter turnout.
Plateau State, whose governorship election has also been declared inconclusive, registered a voter turnout of 54 per cent. The North-Central state accredited 1, 147, 025 out of the 2, 095, 409 voters who had the PVCs.
Taraba State also recorded a 54 per cent voter turnout where Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party secured a second term as governor.
Kaduna State witnessed 53 per cent voter turnout as 1,936,800 voters were accredited out of 3, 648, 831 with the PVCs.
In Adamawa State, where the last elections have also been declared as inconclusive, a 50 per cent voter turnout was recorded. About 894, 481 persons out of 1,788,706 persons with the PVCs voted. However, the figure is also expected to rise as a supplementary election will take place on March 23.
Interestingly, no state in the southern part of Nigeria recorded up to 50 per cent voter turnout.
Of all the states where governorship election held in the South, only the result of Rivers State was held back.
Delta State recorded the highest voter turnout in the South with a little above 48 per cent voter turnout. About 1,188,784 out of 2,470,924 persons with the PVCs were accredited to vote in the oil-rich state while about 37 per cent turned out to vote in Akwa Ibom.
Speaking with Punch correspondent, a former National Commissioner of INEC, Prof. Lai Olurode, said the election environment was not conducive for peaceful voting.
He believed that the voter turnout and the conduct of the 2015 presidential election were better than the situation in 2019.
Olurode stated, “The aftermath of the presidential election in some places, including Lagos, made many believe that their safety would not be guaranteed. The average voter wants to be sure that when he leaves his home, he will return safely.
“It is important to stress that INEC improved on logistics but other stakeholders in the electoral process probably didn’t do enough. Certainly, there is room for better performance in future elections. Nigeria certainly deserves better electoral engagement.
“Elections ought not to be the equivalent of a slaughter’s slab. Some politicians display an unbelievable level of desperation. We also need to create an electoral regime other than the present zero-sum game, one in which every participant is a winner.”