Bisina Somto, PBA Journalism MenteeFour days after Prime Business Africa announced its pre-election campaign poll results in which Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi won an overwhelming percentage of the votes ahead of others, another poll conducted by NOI shows Obi also leading with 21 per cent.
READ ALSO: 2023 Pre-campaign Poll Puts Peter Obi In 87.9% Lead; Tinubu, 8.5%; Atiku, 1.8%
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe poll which was commissioned by ANAP Foundation was conducted this month. It suggests a three-horse race between Peter Obi, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP, while Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) came fourth in the poll.
According to a statement signed by Peterside, President and Founder, Anap Foundation, “the poll revealed a substantially close race between Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“The results showed a significant lead for Mr. Peter Obi with 21% of voters proposing to vote for him if the presidential election were to be conducted today; and 13% each proposing to vote for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who are both tied in second place. Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso was a distant fourth with 3% of voters proposing to vote for him,” Peterside said.
Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Campaign Council has reacted to the result of the poll, describing it as “dubious”.
The ANAP foundation has traditionally organized political opinion polls ahead of each of the presidential elections since 2011 and are conducted by the frontline polling company, NOI polls.
Peterside said this recent nationwide opinion poll was concluded in early September 2022 with each of the respondent asked the same question, “suppose the presidential election is being conducted today, who are you likely to vote for.”
“Running significantly behind the leading pack is Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who is the lone outsider. All other contestants polled results that are statistically insignificant.
“Mr. Peter Obi’s 8 percentage point lead at this early stage is significant, but not sufficient to separate him completely from a leading pack of candidates scoring 21%, 13% and 13% respectively.
“Undecided voters and those who prefer not to reveal their preferred candidate add up to a whopping 32% and 15% respectively. The gender split of undecided voters shows that 39% of women are undecided versus 27% of male voters.”
When asked if respondents were aware of the various candidates vying for the Presidency, data gathered showed that 99% of the respondents were aware of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, 98% were aware of Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, 95% were aware of Peter Obi of LP and 74% were aware of Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP. All other candidates scored below 55% in terms of name recognition.
According to the results, 46% of the respondents said they want to see their preferred presidential candidates participate in a live interview and / or debate, with the interview/debates across topics like their party manifestos, issues of Security, Economy, Education, Job Creation, Healthcare and Agriculture amongst others.
“It is worthy of note that 69% of those aged 18-25, 76% of those aged 26-35, 77% of those aged 36-45, 87% of those aged 46-60 and 89% of those aged 61+ responded saying that they would definitely vote in the coming elections,” the statement added.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council in a statement released on Thursday signed by the media director, Bayo Onanuga, said the NOI poll was inconsistent with reality.
Part of the statement read, “The attention of the APC Presidential Campaign Council has been drawn to a poll conducted by the NOI polls which made wild and incredible permutations on the presidential elections.
“We are unperturbed by these dubious and unreliable statistics because our research shows that NOI Polls have been off the mark at critical election periods in recent times.”
Interesting and educating news story.