Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the body responsible for conductions of all elections in Nigeria released data on the distribution of permanent voters card as at February 17, 2015.
The total number of registered voters in Nigeria as at February 17, 2015 is 68,917,121, but only 52,233,396 have their permanent voters card at hand for the elections, a 75.79% performance level
This information shows the enthusiasm displayed by the Northern region of the Country for the elections, with Zamfara 1,458,513 (97.51%) ranking high on the table of collected PVCs, Nassarawa 1,196,583 (96.29%), Gombe 1,064,577 (95.05%), Jigawa 1,706,814 (93.2%), Katsina 2,620,628 (92.68%)Kaduna 3,133,813 (91.98%) and Taraba 1,155,583 (89.25%).
The South-Southern region, is led by Akwa-Ibom State, with 1,468,708 (87.38%) ready voters, followed by Delta State with 1,728,524(75.97%) voters, Rivers State with 1,923,139 voters (75.79%), Cross River with 879,249 (74.79%) ready voters.
Anambra leads the South-Eastern States with a total of 1,499,317 (76.37%) ready voters; Enugu State follows closely at 1,065,210 (74.53%) ready voters.
The South Western States has the lowest turnout of all the regions despite the outreach and unending jingle on PVC collections and election campaigns. Osun State tops the zone with 1,012,678 (71.97%) and Ondo comes behind with 1,071,010 (70.25%) prepared voters, Ekiti State has 503,431 (68.77%), Oyo State has 1,569,380 (64.97%), Lagos and Ogun State with 3,685,322 (62.4%) and 747,556 (40.86%) respectively. It is worth noting that Lagos State, even with a low-performance level of 62.4% has the highest number of cards collected by voters, this is ostensibly so due to its large population.
States like Yobe and Cross River recorded a high number of Registered Voters but experienced a low outcome in the hand out of Permanent Voters Card. A total of 1,699,970 registered to vote but only 824,401 has gone forward to pick their permanent voters card in Yobe and only 879,249 of 1,175,623 registered voters are prepared to vote in Cross River State.
There has been a report that some voters who registered during the 2011 elections are still awaiting their Permanent voters Cards from Abuja, faulting the preparation of INEC and its professionalism in the exercise. However, other reason for low outcomes includes the culture of apathy among citizens.