NIGERIA: Elections 2015 in 36 interesting figures

Nigeria will go to the polls on February 14, 2015 and February 28, 2015 to elect ‘a president and national assembly’ and ‘Senatorial elections and House of Representatives’ respectively. 

Nigeria gained independence from the British on 1st October 1960. In 1963, the country transitioned itself into a Federal Republic with Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first president. The oil rich country run a British-model parliamentary system from 1960 to 1966. Afterwards, Nigeria adopted the American bicameral model and congressional system in 1999. In this light, your authoritative African Elections Project (AEP) brings you 36 interesting figures (based on 36 states in Nigeria) about this important election of the most populous nation in Africa.

Below are the 36 figures about the February 14, 2015 elections:

• 2 horse race between PDP’s sitting president, Goodluck E. Jonathan, 57 years,and Muhammadu Buhari, 72 years, of the APC.

• 2 staged electoral process - accreditation and voting.

• 4 elections to be held (‘Presidential, National Assembly, Governorship, House of Assembly’).

• 174 million is the estimated population of Nigeria.

• 68,833,476 voters are eligible to cast ballots.

• 4,166,524 voters removed from voter roll from 73 million in 2011 to 68.8 million in 2014 due to electoral commission clean up of ghost names.

• 6 geopolitical zones namely: South East (5 States), South South(6 States), South West (6 States), North East (6 States), North West (7 States), and North Central (6 States) .

• 1 million persons displaced due to Boko Haram attacks (the general estimate is pegged at 1.5 million).

• 14 presidential candidates will be contesting the elections.

• 52 years is the average age of the presidential contenders while the oldest candidate is 72 years.

• 739 candidates for Senatorial elections.

• 1,780 candidates for the House of Representatives elections.

• 380 candidates for governorship elections.

• $627,288,000 (N120 billion) is the estimated cost of running the elections.

• 1 female presidential candidate: Remi Sonaiya.

• 4 female vice-presidential candidates.

• 150,000 polling stations, up from the 119,973 in 2011.

• 88 Observer groups have been given approval by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

• 1.2 million ad-hoc staff to be deployed by the INEC and 132, 000 verification card readers will be used for polls.

• 16 years rule by the incumbent PDP. PDP has been in power since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.

• 4 largest opposition parties formed All Progressive Congress (APC) alliance: (the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

• 25 sniffer dogs to be deployed.

• 25% valid votes from two-thirds of the oil-rich country’s 36 states and the capital is required to win the presidential race.

• 23 out of the 36 states is currently controlled by incumbent PDP.

• 2,000 patrol vehicles will be used by the police during elections.

• 360,000 security operatives (300,000 police officers, 60,000 of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps) would be deployed in the various states for the polls.

• 10,000 people killed since 2009 by militant group Boko Haram’s insurgency, especially in the North-East of Nigeria have threatened the polls.

• 10 out of 14 vice-presidential candidates are men representing 71% while 4 are females representing 29%.

• 5 PhD holders and 1 professor is running for president.

• 4 generally successful elections have been organized since the end of the military rule in 1999. The February 14 polls will be the fifth.

• 3 presidents have ruled Nigeria since the 1999 constitution took effect.

• 109 senate seats to be contested for.

• 360 seats in the Nigeria house of assembly.

• 800 deaths t and 65,000 displaced due to 2011 elections - most violent in Nigeria’s history.

• 400 civil society groups under Transition Monitoring Group(TMG) will monitor the election using statistical random sampling methodology or ‘Quick Count’.

• 7 days is the period between announcement of elections results and run-off elections for the office of the president or governor of state(if any)

AEP

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