If an election to be held in Nigeria today, only 12% would vote for former dicator, General Ibrahim Babangida. A poll of Nigeria's presidential candidates by an international agency presented by the World Bank shows that just about one in ten of Nigerians really think he has something to offer.
While releasing the result of the poll to the media at the World Bank office conference room in Abuja yesterday, Head of Media of CMA, Dr Messan Mawugbe who was supported by the external affairs officer of World Bank, Dr Obadiah Tohomdet, said their findings were the results of analysis of questionnaires distributed to 37000 respondents in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.
Former military administrator of Lagos State, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa emerged first on the list of 10 presidential aspirants in the African leadership poll for Nigeria, presented at the World Bank country office in Abuja.
The 95 page poll result stated that names like Prof. Jerry Gana, Obong Victor Attah, Peter Odili, Gen. Mohammed Buhari, Alhaji Ahmed Markafi, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, appeared in the top ten list of electorates’ preference, with Gen. Buba Marwa topping the list with a total of 15,085 frequency score (40%), followed by Gen. I. Babangida with 4060 frequency score (12%) and Gen. Mohammed Buhari with 4035 frequency score (11%).’
Marwa has the most widespread approval rating, as he seems to have won the approval of many people in the Western states.
Babangida's supports always brag about how popular their candidate is throughout the nation. This poll has just summarily indicated there is not much hope for the return of Babangida to power, except he just wants to be a senator or a council chairman.
Although the poll result showed Babangida, Mohammadu Buhari, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Governor Orji Uzor Kalu as leading the pack in the 2007 election, there is really little to show for all the millions of dollars IBB has been spending at home and abroad.
The poll was conducted by an international poll agency, Centre for Media Analysis (CMA) based in Ghana while the release of the result was facilitated by the World Bank country office in Nigeria.
The result also showed that Nigerians would prefer to vote for a presidential candidate in 2007 based on policy outlines, the candidate’s past performance and level of experience in the political sector. It further revealed that majority of Nigerians would want to vote for a presidential candidate because he has held a presidential office before while 67 % of eligible voters would prefer voting for a younger presidential aspirant in 2007.
According to the poll result, "the trend of preference for prospective presidential aspirants per state analysis revealed that Gen. Buba Marwa might either be more popular than the other aspirants or has been very instrumental in the politics of Nigeria since his name kept appearing in every respondent’s list of preference of aspirants to be endorsed in the 2007 elections in almost all the states in Nigeria."
"However, preference for him contesting for the presidential elections in 2007 reached its maximum acceptance in Lagos, Ondo,Oyo,Ogun, Osun, Anambra, Bayelsa states and ranked relatively higher to other contesting aspirants in all the 36 sates of Nigeria and Federal Capital Territory",it added.
As a result, experts behind the poll recommended that " political parties in Nigeria should give the opportunity to upfront political aspirants to contest for the 2007 elections."
Besides, they stated that " since a party’s chance of wining an election in the 2007 Nigerian elections would be mostly based on its policy outlines and national development goals, there’s the need for political parties to redesign their policy outlines taking into consideration; National Security, Power, Good Governance, and Economic growth."
They also recommend that women should be encouraged to participate in " democratic exercises since the number of women who agreed to answer our questionnaire document were few as against the men."
