FACT CHECK: Is it true Miyetti Allah has 16m voters as members?

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) says the association has about 16 million voters no presidential candidate or political party has secured their confidence ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The National President of MACBAN, Baba Usman-Ngelzarma, made the disclosure in an interview on Friday in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Full Text: The National President of MACBAN, Baba Usman-Ngelzarma, in an interview with newsmen on Friday stated thay any presidential candidate that attends to the association’s demands is likely to win the elections due to the its numerical strength.

He said, “We are still waiting for all the presidential candidates to answer our questions on the seven-point demands we raised.

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“Up till now, we have not received any consent from any of the presidential candidates. So, until we receive one before we begin to analyse and consider within the shortest time we have and decide whether we can endorse or not.”

Usman-Ngelzarma added that all the major political parties had not included the challenges facing the Nigerian pastoralists in their manifestos.

Verification

Checks by Daily Trust have shown that Nigeria has a projected number of 93.5 million voters as at October 2022 according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who made the disclosure at the third quarterly meeting with political parties, said the figure, was 20 million higher than the combined voter population of the 14 other West African countries in the sub-region.

Further checks by Daily Trust also showed that INEC registered about 10 million new eligible voters out of which 40 percent students are students.

In terms of demographic distribution, 7.2 million new voters or 76.5% are young people between 18-34 years, while there is a slightly higher number of female (4.8 million or 50.82%) than male (4.6 million or 49.18%) voters.

“In terms of occupation, 3.8 million (40.8%) are students.” INEC further disclosed on the new registrations.

Checks on INEC websites also show that the North-West geopolitical zone, which comprises the seven states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Jigawa, with a total of 22.67 million registered voters, has the highest number of registered voters.

This is closely followed by the South-West, which now has 18.3 million, having added 2, 039, 982 new registered voters. The zone comprises Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo.

In third position is the South-South which comprises Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta states. The number of registered voters in the zone has risen from 12.8 million to 15.2 million.

North-Central which is made up of Nasarawa, Kogi, Benue, Niger, Kwara and Plateau, now has 14.1 million voters while the North-East which is made up of Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe, added 1.5 million new voters to reach 12.8 million registered voters.

The South-East, which is the smallest geopolitical zone, and consists of five states Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Imo, now has 11.49 million voters while the number of registered voters in the Federal Capital Territory has increased from 1.3 million to 1.5 million.

Daily Trust observed that there is no where on the INEC website that specifies the numeric strength or the number of registered of different ethnic or religious Associations in Nigeria.

There is no official data from either the National Population Commission or the National Bureau of Statistics showing that Miyetti Allah has up to 16 million members spread across the country.

Verdict: Unverified

Conclusion

Although Miyetti Allah as an association has eligible voters, there is no official record from INEC to show that the association has 16 million voters, as such, the claim by Usman-Ngelzarma cannot be verified.

This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).