The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Tuesday honoured popular musician Innocent Idibia, aka 2baba, for his efforts in mobilising youths to register for the 2019 general elections.
Also honoured was the Head of European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlson.
Speaking at an election summit for youths in Abuja where the award was given, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu noted that the upcoming general elections would be for young people whom he revealed constitute 81 per cent of registered voters.
He said, “About 22.3 million or 26 per cent 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 per cent 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 is 51 per cent of the total number of registered voters in the country.
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“But if you add the middle-aged category of 36-50 which is 25 million or 30 per cent, young people in this country constitute 81 per cent of the registered voters in Nigeria.”
Yakubu commended 2Face and others for mobilising youths to register and urged them to continue to encourage them to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.
The INEC Chairman explained also that youths have been drawn from the National Youth Service Corps and tertiary institutions to man the 119,973 polling centres in the country.
