The 137,487 figure being circulated as the number of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) on Nigeria’s voters’ register may not represent the total population of registered voters with disabilities, according to the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader for Persons with Disabilities, Tolu Bankole.
Bankole raised the concern in a statement issued in Abuja, arguing that the figure should be understood within the context of when and how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began collecting disability-disaggregated information from registered voters.
According to him, the figure largely reflects PWDs who indicated their disability status after INEC introduced a dedicated disability field into its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) process in 2021.
This means that persons with disabilities who registered before 2021 may not have been captured in the disability-disaggregated statistics because previous voter registration systems did not consistently provide a separate field for recording disability status.
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, Bankole said.
The figure 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.
Why the figure may still be an undercount
Bankole also cautioned that the 137,487 figure could represent an undercount even among voters who registered from 2021 onwards.
He said some PWDs may have registered without indicating their disability status during the registration process.
As I have consistently stated is that many PWDs indeed registered without indicating their PWD status, he said.
He attributed the failure of some voters to self-identify to factors including inadequate awareness, stigma and the perception among some PWDs that declaring their disability during voter registration was unnecessary.
The implication is that the disability data currently available to INEC may not fully capture either the historical population of PWDs already on the voters’ register or all PWDs who subsequently registered.
Call for clearer presentation of PWD voter data
Bankole urged INEC to be more explicit about the limitations of its PWD statistics whenever the figures are released or cited.
He called on the commission to “publicly and consistently qualify PWD statistics with the temporal and methodological limitations of the data,” so that the figures are not interpreted as representing the complete number of PWDs registered to vote in Nigeria.
He also urged INEC to intensify targeted sensitisation for PWDs completing new registration or updating their voter information.
Such sensitisation, he said, should help eligible voters understand the importance of accurately indicating their disability status during the registration process.
For PWD organisations and advocates, accurate disability-disaggregated electoral data is important because it can provide a clearer basis for planning accessible elections and identifying the needs of voters with different types of disabilities.
Historical data gap
The concern also points to a historical data gap in Nigeria’s electoral system. Where disability status was not systematically collected during earlier registration exercises, INEC may have limited information about the number and categories of PWDs already contained in the voters’ register.
Bankole therefore urged the commission to explore, within legal and privacy constraints, possible mechanisms for improving the historical visibility of PWDs already registered as voters.
He further called for deeper collaboration between INEC and organisations representing persons with disabilities ahead of the 2027 general elections and beyond.
The issue is not simply about the accuracy of a single figure. It raises questions about how electoral institutions collect, maintain and communicate disability data and how such information can be used to strengthen electoral inclusion.
For Nigeria’s PWD community, having more complete and transparent data could help stakeholders better understand the size and diversity of the disability voting population and advocate for measures that address barriers faced by voters with disabilities.
As preparations for the 2027 elections continue, calls for improved disability data are likely to remain part of the broader conversation around accessible and inclusive elections in Nigeria.
