President Goodluck Jonathan
Decline in President’s approval rating linked to Boko Haram attacks.
The monthly survey by an independent polling group, NOI Polls has revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan’s governance approval rating for February 2014 took a 10 points plunge from the January rating.
The group said on Tuesday that the latest poll results showed that 51 per cent of the adult Nigerian population approved of the job performance of the President during the past month, from 61 per cent recorded in January 2014.
The polls result also revealed that the President was ranked “very poor” for his performance on national security, job creation, power and education in the month of February. He was, however, ranked “average” for his performance on economy, health, agriculture and food security, and transportation.
Though the report said 40 per cent of Nigerians experienced slight improvements in power supply over the past one month, it noted however that this figure represented a 4-point decline when compared to January.
The poll is an exercise embarked upon to help gauge the opinions and perceptions of Nigerians on the rating and performance of the President on key elements of his transformation agenda, and the state of power supply in the country.
According to the poll result, out of about 35 per cent that approved the President’s job performance, only 16 per cent held a strong opinion of their approval. About 22 per cent of respondents neither approved nor disapproved the President’s performance rating.
An assessment of the President’s performance on the basis of the six geo-political zones showed that the South-East has the highest proportion of 84 per cent, followed by the South-South zone (63 per cent).
The South-West zone, with 37 per cent, has the highest proportion of respondents that disapproved of the President’s performance, while the North-West zone, with 26 per cent, accounted for the highest proportion of respondents that remained neutral on the president’s approval rating.
When these findings were compared with the January 2014 poll, NOIPolls said there was a significant 10-point decline in the President’s job approval rating. It said that year-on-year analysis showed that the current results also represented a slight 4-point decline when compared to the President’s approval rating in February 2013, which stood at 54 per cent.
Assessing the performance of the President on key areas of his transformation agenda, respondents said that the President performed poorly. On the 5-point scale, the poll showed that an average performance of 3 was recorded for economy, health, agriculture & food security, transportation, and foreign policy and diplomacy, while on job creation, power, education and security, the president was ranked 1.
A comparison of the current findings with January’s results revealed that the President’s performance rating on job creation, power and education declined from 3 to 1 in February. His rating on security dropped from a good ranking of 4 to 1 in February, owing to the recent spate of attacks by the Boko Haram sect in some North Eastern States. On February 16, Reuters reported that militants were responsible for about 300 deaths recorded during the month, with most of the dead being civilians. On February 25, suspected members of the Islamist extremist group, Boko Haram killed at least 29 students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State. On February 26, 2014, the group also attacked and killed at least 32 in several villages in Madagali and Michika Local Government Areas of Adamawa State.
On the situation of power in the country within the past month, a total of 40 per cent said they noticed an improvement, with 26 per cent experiencing a “slight improvement” and 14 per cent “much improvement.” However, the report said these figures illustrated a 4-point drop in the proportion of respondents that experienced an improvement in January – 44 per cent.
About 24 per cent of the respondents said, “There’s no difference at all”, while 20 per cent said “It remains bad”; with 16 per cent stating “It is very bad and has gone worse.” Respondents in the North-East and the South-East zones made up 48 per cent each – the highest percentage – of respondents that experienced an improvement in their power supply, while the North-West zone accounted for the highest number of respondents that said, “There’s no difference at all” or “It remains bad” with 24 per cent and 34 per cent respectively. Respondents in the South-South zone – 20 per cent – were the largest proportion of respondents that indicated “It’s very bad, has gone to worse.”
The result is a 4-point decline when compared with the results obtained in January 2014.
NOIPolls said despite the overall 10-point decline, 51 per cent of adult Nigerians still approve the job performance of the President over the past month.
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