Abuja, Nigeria. February 4th, 2014 – Latest governance poll results released by NOIPolls for the month ofJanuary 2014 have revealed that 61% of Nigerians approve of the job performance of the president over the past month. This rating represents a significant 21-point increase in his approval rating from December 2013(40%) and an 11-point increase when compared with January 2013 (50%). Furthermore, majority of Nigerians(44%) said they experienced slight improvements in the situation of power supply to their households over the past one month. This represents a 10-point increase in the proportion of respondents that experienced an improvement from December 2013 (34%) and a 3-point decline when compared to January 2013 (47%). These are the key findings from the Governance Snap Poll conducted in week of January 27th 2014.
These results represent the first in the 2014 monthly series of governance polls conducted by NOIPolls to gauge the opinions and perceptions of Nigerians regarding the approval rating of the president, the performance of the President on key elements of his transformation agenda, and the state of power supply in the country.
Respondents to the poll were asked three specific questions. The first sought to gauge the perception of Nigerians on the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan over the past 1 month.Respondents were asked: Do you approve or disapprove of the job performance of President Jonathan in the past 1 month? Findings revealed that the overall majority, a total of 61%, approve of the President’s job performance, where 44%approve and 17% strongly approve. This rating represents a significant 21-point increase in the approval rating of the President when compared with December 2013 (40%). Furthermore, a total of 19% of the respondents disapprove of the President’s job performance, representing a 10-point decline from December 2013 (29%).Similarly, 20% remain neutral as they neither approve nor disapprove, representing a 10-point decline of the neutrals from December 2013 (11%).
Further analysis based on geo-political zone indicates that the South-East zone (76%) has the highest proportion of respondents that approve of the President’s job performance, followed by the South-South zone (69%). In addition, while the South-West zone (27%) has the highest proportion of respondents that disapprove of his performance; the North-East (27%) and North-West (26%) zones led most respondents that remained neutral.
A comparison with January 2013 results revealed that the proportion of Nigerians who gave a positive rating of the President’s job performance increased by 11-points and there was a corresponding 11-points decline in the proportion that gave his performance a negative rating over the 1 year period.
Secondly, with feedback from the media and general public, NOIPolls has included the next question, which seeks to assess the performance of the president on key areas of his transformation agenda. Respondents were asked: On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is very poor and 5 is excellent, how would you rate the performance of the President Jonathan in the following areas? (1) Job Creation (2) Power (3) Economy (4) Health (5) Education (6) Agriculture (7) Transportation (8) Foreign relations and (9) Security.
Based on the responses, the President had an average nationwide ranking of 3 on a scale of 1 to 5 for his performance on Job Creation, Power, Economy, Health, Education, Agriculture & food security, Transportation and Foreign policy; indicating average performance. However, in the area of security, the president was ranked 4, signifying above average performance.
Finally, in order to gauge the situation of power in Nigeria within the past month, respondents were asked: How would you describe power in your area in the past 1 month? The results reveal that 44% (21%+23%)of Nigerians noticed an improvement in the state of power over the past month. These figures represent a 10-point increase in the proportion of respondents that experienced an improvement from December 2013 (34%)and a 3-point decline when compared with Jan 2013 (47%). Furthermore, 24% of the respondents claim “it remains bad”, while 20% indicated “there’s no difference at all” and 12% of the respondents claim “is very bad and has gone worse”.
From the geo-political zone perspective, the North-Central zone (49%) has the highest proportion of respondents that experienced an improvement in their power supply, while the South-East zone (29%)accounts for the highest number of respondents that claim “there’s no difference at all” in the state of power in January. Furthermore, the North-East zone has the highest proportion of respondents (30%) that say power supply over the past month “remains bad” and the highest number of respondents that also say “it’s very bad has gone worse” were from the South-South zone (18%).
In conclusion, the results from the current poll have indicated that 61% of Nigerians approve of the President’s performance over the past month. This rating represents a significant 20-point increase in the approval rating of the President from December 2013 (40%) and an 11-point increase when compared to January 2013 (50%).Further findings revealed that the President had an average nationwide ranking of 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 for his performance on security; while he was also ranked an average of 3 (each) for Agriculture, job creation, power, economy, health and education amongst others. In addition, 44% of those polled claimed to have experienced sight improvement in power supply to their households over the past one month; represents a 10-point increase in the proportion of those that experienced improvement in December 2013 (34%).
Finally, it would be recalled that the New Year poll released by NOIPolls early this year identified Job Creation, Electricity and Security as the top three issues that Nigerians want President Goodluck Jonathan to focus his attention on in 2014. It is therefore advised that to sustain the current positive approval rating of the President and a continued upward trend, more concerted efforts need to be focused on these key issues – Job Creation, Power and Security.
Survey Methods
The opinion poll was conducted in January 27th to 29th 2014. It involved telephone interviews of a random nationwide sample. 1,000 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed. With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results obtained are statistically precise – within a range of plus or minus 3%. NOIPolls Limited, No.1 for country-specific polling services in West Africa, which works in technical partnership with the Gallup Organisation (USA), to conduct periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria. More information is available at www.noi-polls.com
Disclaimer
This press release has been produced by NOIPolls Limited to provide information on all issues which form the subject matter of the document. Kindly note that while we are willing to share results from our polls with the general public, we only request that NOIPolls be acknowledged as author whenever and wherever our poll results are used, cited or published.
NOIPolls hereby certifies that all the views expressed in this document accurately reflect its views of respondents surveyed for the poll, and background information is based on information from various sources that it believes are reliable; however, no representation is made that it is accurate or complete. Whilst reasonable care has been taken in preparing this document, no responsibility or liability is accepted for errors or fact or for any views expressed herein by NOIPolls for actions taken as a result of information provided in this report. Any ratings, forecasts, estimates, opinions or views herein constitute a judgment as at the date of this document. If the date of this document is not current, the views and content may not reflect NOIPolls’ current findings and/or thinking.
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