Young Nigerians are demonstrating a powerful surge in political engagement, leading a massive wave of new voter registrations, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Data released by INEC reveals that within just the first seven hours of reopening its online portal on Monday, an impressive 69,376 Nigerians completed the pre-registration process. A significant majority of these new applicants—48,033, or 69.2%—are young people between the ages of 18 and 34.
The registration also showed a near-perfect gender balance, with 33,803 male applicants (48.7%) and 35,573 female applicants (51.3%).
INEC National Commissioner Sam Olumekun announced that the online platform will remain open 24/7 for new registrations. Furthermore, in-person registration is scheduled to begin on Monday, August 25th, at 811 state and local government offices nationwide, operating on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The commission clarified that the process is exclusively for Nigerian citizens who are 18 years or older and have not registered before, explicitly warning that double registration is a federal offence. The initiative will also facilitate requests for inter-state transfers and replacement of lost or damaged voter cards.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
