Abuja, Nigeria. March 2011.
Over the past five years, there has been an escalation of sectarian violence in the North-Central city of Jos, which has claimed hundreds of innocent lives and destroyed property worth over N3 billion. In the month of January of 2011, there have already been over 200 victims, many of whom are women and children. This crisis raises the question – what definite steps should the government take to put an end to the crisis in Jos, Plateau State?
In a recent survey conducted by NOI Polls, 22 percent of people interviewed supported dialogue between the warring factions as a means of finding lasting solution to the crisis. In addition, 21 percent believed that the persecution of those responsible for the crisis would bring an end to it, while 19 percent think the government should declare a state of emergency in the state. Interestingly, 16 percent of those polled do not know what will lead to a lasting solution, as the situation is very complicated. However, 6 percent want the government to create another state out of Plateau, while 5 percent believe the solution is in prayers.
The result shows that respondents are split on the possible solutions to the Jos crisis. With such varied views, it is critical that the Government effectively engages the different groups in finding a solution to the crisis.
Survey Methods
These results are based on 1095 telephone interviews with randomly selected phone–owning Nigerians aged 18 years and older, across the six geographical regions of the country. The poll was conducted between February 23rd -25th, 2011. With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 4 percentage points of what they would have been if the entire population had been surveyed. This poll is part of the ongoing snap poll exercise conducted by NOI Polls to rapidly assess public sentiments following various social, political or economic events. NOI Polls – a Nigeria based opinion research organization works in technical partnership with Gallup Polls (USA), to conduct periodic opinion polls on various socioeconomic issues in Nigeria.
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