Nigerians have given President Muhammadu Buhari 64 per cent average in its overall job performance rating in his first year in office. The latest polls results by NOI Polls Limited released on Monday revealed that President Buhari’s approval rating between June 2015 and May 2016 ranged from his highest of 80 per cent in October 2015 to the lowest of 42 per cent in April 2016.
NOI Polls regularly conducts periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria. According to the poll results, 44 per cent of Nigerians now believe the country was currently moving in the right direction under President Buhari, against the opinion of 37 per cent of the sample population that said the country was moving in the wrong direction.
Only 19 per cent said the country was neither moving in the right nor wrong direction. Further analysis of specific indices of the study showed that Nigerians rated as average at 55 and 47 per cent the president’s performance on corruption and national security respectively, while 14 per cent rated very poorly his performance on job creation and handling of the economy (21 per cent). On the most important issue(s) the administration should focus its attention on over the remaining three years, the poll said Nigerians identified unemployment (21 per cent), power (17 per cent), and the economy (16 per cent) as top priority areas. Details of the findings based on geo-political zones indicated that the North-West and North-East geopolitical zones with the highest proportion of respondents gave the president 81 per cent each, while the South-South and South- East zones accounted for the highest proportion of respondents who disapproved the president’s performance with 35 per cent each.
The report said the average overall approval of 64 per cent by respondents cuts across all age groups, with more male respondents (67 per cent) approving his performance than female (60 per cent). On why they approved or disapproved the president’s job performance, the result showed that the open-ended answers, particularly in May 2016, cited the improved security (31 per cent), the fight against corruption (17 per cent) and the president’s good intentions (16 per cent), among other reasons. On the other hand, those who disapproved the president’s performance cited the worsening economy (30 per cent), the unrealized expectation for change (29 per cent) and the increase in prices of goods and services (21 per cent), to mention a few. On recommendations for the most important issues the administration should focus on in the remaining three years, 21 per cent of Nigerians said unemployment; 17 per cent rooted for power/electricity, while 16 per cent were in support of economy. Other categories included food and agriculture (11 per cent), education (nine per cent), and security (seven per cent), among others.
