Ngozi James
Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra state and a presidential aspirant under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has emerged most preferred presidential candidate in the upcoming general elections, according to results of independent poll.
Yemi Osinbajo, incumbent Vice President and presidential aspirant under the All Progressives Congress followed as the second most preferred presidential aspirant.
The survey was conducted by Nextier, a multi-competency advisory firm, and Data-Tier, a data analytics and digital communications firm. The survey aimed to gauge Nigerians’ preferences for a presidential candidate, understand the challenges they would like the next government to address promptly, and decipher how ethnic and gender biases would inform the next election.
Judged across all 467 responses, the most preferred candidate for president were Peter Obi (46 percent), Yemi Osinbajo (28 percent), Bola Tinubu (7.5 percent) and Atiku Abubakar (3 percent). The most preferred candidates for the vice presidency were Aminu Tambuwal (28 percent), Musa Kwankwaso (19 percent), Peter Obi (16 percent), Bukola Saraki (6.9 percent), Nyesom Wike (6.4 percent) and Yemi Osinbajo (5.8 percent).
Assessing the responses from a geopolitical dimension, the presidential preference for respondents from southern Nigeria were Peter Obi (51.2 percent) and Yemi Osinbajo (26.6 percent). For the position of Vice President, these same respondents preferred Aminu Tambuwal (30.2 percent), Peter Obi (16.6 percent) and Musa Kwankwaso (16.6 percent). No other candidates polled up to 10 percent in either of the categories.
The presidential preferences for respondents from northern Nigeria were Yemi Osinbajo (34.2 percent), Peter Obi (20 percent), and Musa Kwankwaso (13.2 percent). The respondents’ preferences for the vice presidency were Musa Kwankwaso (32.9 percent), Aminu Tambuwal (17.1 percent) and Peter Obi (14.4 percent). No other candidates polled up to 10 percent in either of the categories.
The survey asked the respondent to rank the 15 candidates in their Most Preferred and Least Preferred order. Peter Obi and Yemi Osinbajo were the most preferred candidates, while Bola Tinubu and Abubakar Malami were the least preferred candidates.
Analysis of the survey responses shows that Nigerians are most concerned with the insecurity level in the country. Three out of ten Nigerians (34.1 percent) indicated that insecurity is the most critical challenge in the country. Weak economic growth ranked second (22.1 percent), while national disunity ranked third (13.92 percent). Poverty (11.99 percent) and unemployment (10.28) were the other critical development issues.