• Osun, Borno lead CVR registration as INEC releases Week 5 details
• IPC, Yiaga Africa, EU garner support for electoral reforms
Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) Africa has called for a careful handling of the appointment process of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) leadership as the commission undergoes a major transition less than 60 days from now.
The Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, urged President Bola Tinubu to demonstrate statesmanship by adopting an unprecedented level of transparency before submitting nominations for the leadership of the commission to the Senate.
Meanwhile, Osun, Borno and Lagos states have taken the lead in the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), according to the INEC update released yesterday on the pre-online registration.
In a statement yesterday, Itodo suggested to the President to publish the names of prospective nominees and solicit inputs from the public and stakeholders to ensure rigorous pre-nomination scrutiny.
The Guardian reports that outgoing INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, is concluding his two-term tenure in the first week of December 2025, 15 months to the 2027 general elections.
Itodo demanded that the Nigerian Senate fortify its confirmation process through comprehensive public disclosure of nominees’ records, inviting memoranda from citizens and civil society organisations, televising screening sessions, and permitting non-partisan observers to participate.
According to the YIAGA boss, handling this transition with utmost transparency and eschewing partisan considerations is pivotal for Nigeria’s political legitimacy and democratic advancement.
He said: “The transition of the leadership of Nigeria’s electoral commission should not be treated with levity and driven by partisan considerations. It is more than an administrative change in an institution; it is a sacred task with huge implications for political legitimacy and democratic progress.
“The political elite should, therefore, resist the allure of capturing the commission for partisan gain. If the appointment process is handled with the greatest degree of transparency and devoid of political machinations, it can restore public trust, especially the trust of voters and other election stakeholders. The choice before President Tinubu and the 10th Senate is clear: capture INEC for partisan gain or safeguard it for the consolidation of Nigeria’s democracy.”
He advocated revising the criteria for appointing INEC Chairman and Commissioners to explicitly bar individuals with any past or present political party affiliation, stressing that only those with unquestionable integrity and fortitude to withstand political pressures could restore public trust.
According to updated statistics released by INEC on its social media platforms yesterday, the pre-online registration stands at 5,385,060, while physical registration is 764,695 as of September 21.
Of the 5,385,060 online pre-registrations as at Week 5, females are 2,799,844, males 2,585,216, while 3,604,668 are youths between ages 18 and 34, with 1,354,274 being students. Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) are 114,713.
“For the physical registration with 764,695 as the total number of completed registrations at the end of Week 4, the data shows that 418,750 are female, while 345,945 are male. Also, 565,927 of the figure are youths between ages 18 and 34, while students are 279,172 and PWDs are 10,838,” the commission stated.
A breakdown of the online representation showed that Osun is leading with 578,904 registrants (10.75 per cent), followed by Borno with 561,666 (10.43 per cent) and Lagos with 530,180 (9.85 per cent).
The data showed that Enugu State has the least number of online pre-registration with 2,931 (0.05 per cent), followed by Abia with 4,608 (0.09 per cent) and Edo with 9,670 (0.18 per cent).
Meanwhile, the International Press Centre (IPC) and the European Union (EU) are garnering support for the electoral process reform in Nigeria through citizen awareness.
This is coming under the auspices of the Component 4 of the Support to the Media of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria Phase Two (EU-SDGNII) programme.
One of such programmes, convened by the IPC in partnership with YIAGA Africa, was held in Abuja, yesterday.
In his welcome statement, the Executive Director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade, said, “the time has come to raise the bar of advocacy as the National Assembly is close to resumption and will be concluding work on the amendment of the Constitution.”
At the consultative roundtable with media leaders on the Citizens’ Memorandum on Electoral Reform, Arogundade said the focus was on efforts to enhance electoral processes and institutions, which are essential for conducting credible elections and producing widely accepted results.
The former Chairman of the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) said that although the proposals had been submitted to the National Assembly by the EU-SDGNII cohort, they represent substantive concepts rather than purely theoretical ideas.
Arogundade acknowledged YIAGA Africa and other partners in the EU-SDGNII cohort.
