17 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT NIGERIA’S ELECTIONS

1. 235,279,669 votes have been cast in the presidential elections since 1959. This figure is for elections held in 1959, 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.



2. Since 1999, any presidential candidate who won the majority votes in Middle-belt has won the presidential elections.

In 1999 Obasanjo won 72% of the votes in middle-belt and 63% across all regions
In 2003 Obasanjo won 63% of the votes in middle-belt and 62% across all regions
In 2011 Goodluck Jonathan won 66% of the votes in middle-belt and 59% across all regions
In 2015 Buhari won 59% of the votes in middle-belt and 54% across all regions

3. Women in northern Nigeria were not allowed to vote until 1975 through the suffrage from the electoral decree; while all adults including women from other parts of Nigeria were allowed to vote in elections from 1955.



4. In the very early elections in the 1920s in Nigeria, election voting was restricted to men aged 21 or over who were British subjects or a native of Nigeria who had lived in their municipal area for the 12 months prior to the election, and who earned at least £100(46,500naira) in the previous calendar year. You only have to be above 18 years to be eligible to vote today.



5. In 1921 only about 4000 people in Lagos out of 90,000 were eligible and registered to vote while 453 were registered in Calabar. 97 years later we have over 84 million registered voters.



6. The full election results In the 1993 general Elections were not released until 15 years after in 2008. Results were only declared in 14 states by the time the general elections were annulled.



7. It took 43 years to have the first first woman – Mrs Sarah Jibril (Progressive Action Congress) – to represent a registered party and be a presidential candidate in Nigeria in the 2003 elections. With 157,560 votes, she is the Nigerian woman who polled the highest votes ever in a presidential election.



8. Since independence the total number of votes polled by all female candidates in our presidential elections is less than 0.1% of total votes cast since 1959. Including repeat representation of candidates in several elections we have had:

90 Male presidential candidates – 235,866,818 votes
5 Female presidential candidates – 199,905 votes


2003 – Sarah Jubril (PAC) 157,560 votes; Mojisola Adekunle-Obasanjo (MMN) 3757 votes
2007 – Mojisola Adekunle-Obasanjo MMN 4,309 votes
2011 – Chief Ebiti Onoyom Ndok UNPD 21,203 votes
2015 – Comfort Oluremi Sonaiya KOWA 13,076 votes

9. There is strength in mergers, go mega or go home.

In 2011 GEJ (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) polled 22m votes and won Buhari by a margin of 10m votes.
Buhari’s CPC had 12million votes, Ribadu’s ACN had 2million votes, and ANPP had 917,000, votes; the three parties had a combined vote of about 15m in this 2011 election.
In 2015, the three parties combined to form APC with Buhari as the flagbear for the 2015 election. Coincidentally the newly merged party APC had the same 15m and won GEJ who polled 12m by a margin of 3m votes.
In short GEJ lost 10m voters while Buhari only needed to gain 3m (powered by the mergers of course).


10. AYENI MUSA ADEBAYO of APA came third in the last presidential elections with a paltry 53,537 votes. Never has a candidate who polled third in the presidential election in Nigeria had such low votes and gone so unnoticed. Iyiola Omisore who came third in the recent 2018 Osun governorship elections had 128,053 votes and is more well known.



11. In the general presidential elections, if the number of registered but non-accredited voters had voted for a single candidate in all elections since 1999, then that candidate would have won all elections by the widest margin ever in the history of Nigeria. Ironically most people’s excuse for not voting is because they felt their votes wouldn’t count.



12. In Nigeria, the 1979 presidential election ushered in Nigeria’s first executive president. Obasanjo’s handover to Yar Adua was the first time a civilian president would handover to another elected president. The 2015 presidential poll was the first time an incumbent would lose an election to the opposing candidate.



13. Under the presidential system(since 1979) Nigeria has had 11* years of northern and 13 years of southern leadership.



14. 2019 election is a battle of “fifths” between the main contenders.

This is Atiku Abubakar’s 5th attempt at the presidency. In 1993 He was among the candidates who contested SDP’s presidential primary which Abiola. He was 3rd in the presidential general elections for 2007 under AD. In 2011 he lost to Goodluck Jonathan during the PDP presidential primaries. In 2014 he was the third in the presidential primary that brought in Buhari as the candidate for the APC. The coming election is his fifth.

Buhari on the other hand would be the first candidate to contest for 5 consecutive presidential elections. He has been contesting since 2003.





15. No person below 35 years has ever been voted for in our presidential system. The only time we had leaders below 35 years they claimed it through military coup d’etat. Until the “Not-Too-Young-To-Run” campaign, the constitutional barrier was 40 years.

16. Our voters register for the general elections is a bit of a yo-yo (up-down-up-down-up-down). There were 9m registered voters in 1959, 48.6m registered voters in 1979, 65.3m in 1983, 39m in 1993, 57.9m in 1999, 60.8m in 2003, 61.6m in 2007, 73.5m in 2011 and back to 67.4m in 2015.

The highest voter turnout ever in a Nigerian presidential election was 42,018,735 (69.1%) in 2003.



17. INEC has not always been INEC, it has many defunct previous commissions with similar responsibilities in its family tree.

ECN Electoral Commission of Nigeria
FEC Federal Electoral Commission (1960)
FEDECO Federal Electoral Commission (1978)
NEC National Electoral Commission (1987)
NECON National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (1995)
INEC Independent National Electoral Commission (1998)


source: http://darepius.com/17-amazing-facts-about-nigerias-elections/

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