As the tempo of political activities pick up around the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced the second phase of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) for the 2027 election as required by law. This was confirmed by the Adebayo Oketola, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan Adebayo.
The exercise began on Monday, January 5 following an interval between the first phase which was to enable the electoral body review activities and to prepare adequately for resumption of the second phase.
The CVR is a very important requirement towards ensuring that Nigerians participate actively in the forthcoming elections and it is contingent on all eligible voters in the country to seize the opportunity to be involved.
The first phase which started in August 2025 ended in December 2025. A statement from INEC disclosed that a total of 9, 891,801 registered on line out of which 2, 572, 054 were fully completed. Of this 1, 503, 832 completed the online registration, while 1, 068, 222 registered through physical enrolment.
In a further statement, INEC said that “In accordance with Section 19 of the Electoral Act 2022, the display of the register of voters for claims and objections was conducted from December 15 to 21 2025, at local government area offices where the CVR exercises took place.”
The main activities of the CVR include: fresh registration for those who have turned 18 years old; transfer of voters and distribution of Permanent Voters Card (PVC).
INEC stated that under the second phase “…Individuals who registered during the first phase should verify their information, report any errors and raise objections to the inclusion of ineligible or deceased persons on the voters register.”
Although the exercise is in early days, there are issues that have come up which need to be addressed in order to improve the process and the outcomes of the CVR.
The first thing to note is that of the nearly 10 million that registered so far both physically and online, only a little over two million completed the registration. That leaves a shortfall of over seven million that are yet to complete the registration. That means less than 30 per cent of the total number of people who registered for the exercise have turned up to complete the exercise.
Reports indicate that at some of the physical registration centres, there is the issue of overcrowding apart from the slow process of the exercise which discourages many people who want to register from doing so.
There is also the perennial issue of poor telecommunication network in some of the locations which invariably prevents fast and seamless registration process leading to frustration on the part of those who want to start and complete the registration within a reasonable time frame.
We must also not discountenance the issue of voter apathy which has been manifested in poor turnout in elections in various the country. An extension to this disturbing development is that potential voters have now come to view voter registration as not worth their trouble.
By all consideration, this is not encouraging and should be a matter of concern to INEC, the political parties, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and relevant stakeholders in the electoral process in Nigeria.
Daily Trust believes that this should serve as a challenge to INEC by taking measures to make the registration process easier so as to remove the tedium associated with the process. In this regard, the electoral body should as a matter of utmost importance increase the number of registration centres in view of the ever-growing population of the country so as to serve as many who want to register as possible.
Another critical issue is in sensitising and mobilising Nigerians to come forward in their numbers to participate in the exercise. Here, the responsibility lies on INEC and relevant government information and orientation agencies in collaboration with CSOs to raise their game and reach out to Nigerians in all nooks and crannies to consider this exercise as a civic one which must be treated with all seriousness.
INEC should also publish a state by state breakdown of registration which will serve to show those states who are taking the exercise serious and encourage those who are not, to up their game and do the needful.
The CVR is a necessary step in democratic practice and for it is worth all hands must be on deck to improve the process which at the moment is hardly encouraging.
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