Data from the recently concluded presidential election has shown that Nigerian youths are advancing the quality of votes in the country.

FIJ observed during the vote count at the Opere-Fatau Ade polling unit, Shomolu, Lagos, that most of the ballots were carefully ticked to avoid rendering the votes invalid.

One voter at the polling unit told FIJ that he noticed voters were so careful.

READ ALSO: ‘Win Your Ward or Don’t Show Up at Alausa’ — APC Youth Leader Threatens Lagos Politicians Ahead of Gov Election

“Voters are extremely careful with their votes at this polling unit. This was shown in the way the ballot were carefully imprinted on,” he said.

“All the six invalid votes at this polling unit were only got by the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

Moji Adeniyi (not real name), a voter, told FIJ that at her Lagos polling unit, only three votes were rejected.

“For the presidential election vote count, only three votes were invalid. You can’t excuse the carefulness of the thumbprints. It was clear the younger generation is aware,” Adeniyi told FIJ.

“There were about 23 invalid senatorial and House of Representatives votes because the youth’s party was missing on the ballot papers.”

When FIJ asked if the social media campaign towards voter education largely championed by Nigerian youths was effective, Adeniyi said, “Personally, I got information on the right voting techniques from the campaign.”

“I was conscious of how to vote properly because of the campaign that was launched by the youths on Twitter.”

An assistant presiding officer, who simply identified as Samuel, told FIJ that at his polling unit, there was a sharp contrast between the votes of old and young citizens.

“The number of invalid votes, mostly from the old citizens supporting the ruling party, was alarming,” he said.

“There were over 25 votes from the party, while the other parties had only five put together. Most of the elderly people simply wanted to exercise their franchise and be done with it.”

“However, I noticed the carefulness of the young people voting the major opposing party. It reduced the number of invalid votes drastically.”

Samuel said although there had been remarks that campaigns on Twitter were toothless, the narrative was changing.

“Apparently, the Twitter campaign wasn’t just noise. The youths are becoming more aware politically,” he said.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: PDP, LP Walk Out of National Collation Centre

Days preceding the presidential election, young Nigerians pushed out information on the importance of voting correctly.

Please #OBIDIENTS, don't rush!

You have ONE ballot paper, ONE opportunity to cast your vote.

Educate members of your families, friends, colleagues, social media followers, etc.

VOTE FOR @NgLabour of @peterobi pic.twitter.com/OMvTAtdqFC

— Adetutu Balogun, MBA (@Tutsy22) February 20, 2023

Valid and Invalid votes pic.twitter.com/B49JUc9zfy

— 🦅 ℙ𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝕆𝕜𝕖𝕫𝕚𝕖 𝕁 𝔸𝕥𝕒ñ𝕚 🦅 (@StFreakingKezy) February 23, 2023

READ ALSO: 24 Hours After Elections, 66% of South East’s Results Missing From INEC’s Portal

The campaign, which swept through the social media platform, sensitised millions of Nigerians and reduced the number of invalid votes in Lagos in the 2023 presidential election.

In the 2019 elections, residents of Lagos polled a total of 1,028,840 with 67,023 (6.1%) of the votes declared invalid.

Meanwhile, in Saturday’s presidential election, the state polled 1,335, 729 and only 64,278 (4.8%) were declared invalid. This number of invalid votes went down by 1.3%.