Stephen Ukandu (News/Features Editor)
A leading presidential aspirant of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has emerged the most preferred presidential aspirant according to a survey conducted to gauge the choice of voters ahead of the 2023 polls.
The survey was conducted by Nextier, a multi-competency advisory firm; and Data-Tier, a data analytics and digital communications firm, to seek insights to the race.
Some of the objectives of the study were to gauge Nigerians’ preferences for a presidential candidate, understand the challenges Nigerians would like President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor to tackle immediately, and to decipher to what extent ethnic and gender sentiments would influence the next election.
From a poll of 65 potential presidential aspirants cutting across various political parties, 15 top aspirants were selected for the study.
The featured aspirants include former President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (APC); former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar (PDP); former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu (APC); and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, (PDP).
Others are Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele; former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi (PDP); former Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Featured also are Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; former Kano Governor, Musa Kwankwaso; former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim; former Abia State Governor and Minister for Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The study population consisted of voting-age of Nigerians in the country and the Diaspora, using a combination of cluster and random sampling techniques to extract responses from each of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
According to the organisers, a total of 467 persons responded to the structured survey questionnaire comprising 15 questions. The team conducted the survey for two weeks spanning from Wednesday, February 23 to Wednesday, March 9, 2022.
According to the survey results, Obi emerged the most preferred presidential candidate with almost half of the respondents (46.04 percent) voting in his favour.
Vice President Osinbajo came a distant second with 27.84 percent, while Tinubu was third with 7.49% and Atiku clinching the fifth position with 2.78%, while Wike got the sixth position with 2.36%.
Minister of Justice, Malami was last on the table with 0.21% followed by Jonathan and Tambuwal who got 0.64% respectively.
On the most preferred Vice President, Tambuwal was top on the league with 28.05 %; Kwankwaso came second with 19.27%; and Obi came third with 16.27 %.
Southern Nigeria came first as the preferred region with South-East as the choice geopolitical zone for the President to emerge from in 2023.
On the desirable attributes in Nigeria’s next President, respondents despite Nigeria’s overt religiosity, “a belief in God” ranked very low compared to “competence”, which is represented on this list by terms such as knowledgeable (17.89 percent), ability to solve problems (17.39 percent), and capable (16.47 percent).
From the survey, Nigerians want a detribalised leader as President to heal the country from ethnic and religious divisions.
The survey also identified the most critical development challenges in Nigeria in their order of hierarchy as insecurity (34.05%), economic growth (22.06%), disunity/ ethnic hatred (13.92%), poverty (11.99%), unemployment (10.28%), and high cost of living.
