APC chieftain urges INEC to review PWD voter figures

The All Progressives Congress National Leader for Persons with Disabilities, Tolu Bankole, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to review the way it presents figures for Persons with Disabilities on the national voters’ register.

He made the call in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, titled, “Misreporting PWD Numbers in Nigeria’s Voter Register: Why INEC’s Captured Figures Do Not Reflect the Full Historical Reality.”

Bankole explained that the 137,487 PWD figure being circulated by INEC did not represent the total number of registered voters with disabilities in the country, arguing that the data largely covered persons who indicated their disability status after the commission introduced a dedicated disability field in its Continuous Voter Registration process in 2021.

According to him, voters with disabilities who registered before 2021 were not captured in the disability-disaggregated figures because previous registration systems did not consistently include disability status as a separate data field.

He said, “The 137,487 (or derivative) figure is therefore a flow measure of indicated disability from the 2021–present window, not a stock measure of all PWDs in the full historical register. You cannot count what you never measured.

“We therefore call on INEC to publicly and consistently qualify PWD statistics with the temporal and methodological limitations of the data;
Intensify targeted sensitisation so that eligible PWDs completing or updating registration understand the value of accurate indication.

“We also urge the commission to explore, within legal and privacy constraints, mechanisms to improve historical visibility of the full PWD cohort on the register; and continue deepening collaboration with PWD structures for 2027 and beyond.”

The figure cited by Bankole comprises 13,080 visually impaired persons, 9,299 hearing-impaired persons, 30,561 persons with albinism, 19,430 persons with physical impairment and 54,941 persons under other categories.

The APC chieftain, however, said the figures could still be an undercount even for registrations conducted from 2021 because some PWDs did not indicate their status during registration.

“As I have consistently stated is that many PWDs indeed registered without indicating their PWD status,” he said.

Bankole attributed the failure of some registrants to self-identify to poor awareness, stigma and the perception that declaring their disability was unnecessary.

The former lawmaker therefore called on INEC to “publicly and consistently qualify PWD statistics with the temporal and methodological limitations of the data.”

He also urged the commission to intensify sensitisation to ensure that PWDs completing or updating their registration understand the importance of accurately indicating their status.

The APC leader further asked INEC to explore, within legal and privacy constraints, mechanisms to improve the historical visibility of PWDs already captured in the voters’ register.