The percentage of voter turnout in the 2019 election stood at 35.66 % with a total of 84 million registered voters and a turnout of 28.6 million.
The Northwest had the highest voter turnout in the 2019 election which was won by Muhammadu Buhari. Kano, Kaduna and Katsina come first, second and third with a voter turnout of 1.96million, 1.71million and 1,62million respectively. Lagos comes fourth and is the only Southern state among the states with the highest voter turnout with 1.16million votes. Jigawa, another Northwestern state comes fifth with a total vote of 1.15million.
The South had the least voter turnout in the 2019 presidential election. Bayelsa tops the list with a vote of 336,000 and Abia comes second with 334,000 votes. Ebonyi, Ekiti and Cross River follow .
Electoral malpractice, electoral violence, and dissatisfaction with the previous or current government and their candidates are possible reasons for low voter turnout during elections.
Adijat Kareem is a research and data analyst at Dataphyte with a background in Economics. She is passionate about data and storytelling in driving social change and innovation.