INEC organized an election summit for youths on Tuesday, in Abuja in a bid to sensitize young Nigeria to register for elections in the country. The event was also used as an opportunity to give awards to prominent Nigerian musicians in recognition of their support towards mobilizing the youths of the country for their civic duties.
In his address, professor Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, stated, “The 2019 general elections will be for young people who constitute 81 percent of registered voters.”
He went ahead to explain that youth corps members and higher institution students have been mobilized to facilitate the election processes in 119,973 polling centers across the country.
“About 22.3 million or 26 percent of those who registered are officially described as students followed by the second category called farmers and fishermen to the tune of 13.6 million, that is 16.2 percent of the registered voters.
“But among the farmers and fishermen, the majority are also young people. So, those between the ages of 18 and 35 constitute 42.9 million, roughly 43 million of the registered voters which are 51 percent of the total number of registered voters in the country.
“But if you add the middle-aged category of 36-50 which is 25 million or 30 percent, young people in this country constitute 81 percent of the registered voters in Nigeria,” Yakubu explained.
The beneficiaries of the awards include the legendary musician, Innocent Idibia, (Tuface), and Ketil Karlson, the head of European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS.
The INEC chairman subsequently urges them to keep mobilizing Nigerian youths to get their Permanent Voter Cards.
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