APC Says Polls Indicate If Election Were Held Today APC Candidate Would Win

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

It’s a great exercise in Quackery -Presidency

Ayo Balogun, Lagos

“When asked, If the election were held today, would you vote for Goodluck Jonathan or the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, the APC candidate held a ten-point lead over the President. By a margin of 44% to 34% (with 22% undecided), the APC candidate was the clear national choice.”

APC Interim Spokesperson, Lai Mohammed

The Interim National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this in a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos.

Meanwhile, Lai Mohammed said the party is set to unveil its “Road map to a New Nigeria” at the Party’s National Summit to be held in Abuja on Thursday, March 6th.

He explained that the Road map would detail the party’s priorities in fixing the widespread failings of successive PDP governments since 1999, in order to bring hope and succour to the long-suffering people of Nigeria.

He added that the Road map was a product of an empirical and painstaking process embarked upon by the APC, in a deviation from the old practice of packaging such documents on a whim.

”With conditions deteriorating throughout Nigeria, with security an ever increasing concern, with the lack of jobs pushing families and young people further and further into poverty and with new stories of corruption within the PDP government appearing day after day, the APC decided to commission the largest ever public opinion survey in Nigerian history to determine the current status of things in the nation directly from those who knew best – the actual people of Nigeria.

”When asked, ‘In general, do you think things in Nigeria are going in a good direction or bad direction’, by a staggering more than two-to-one margin (50%-24%), Nigerians responded that the country was going in a bad direction. When asked, ‘What issue would you like the President and National Assembly to focus on most’, an overwhelming majority (60%) said jobs was the dominant issue that the government should address.

”And then when asked if they found the following statement convincing or note, ‘Goodluck Jonathan has done nothing to create jobs, and far too many people are still unemployed’, decisively, 58% of Nigerians found that argument about Jonathan convincing.

“When asked, If the election were held today, would you vote for Goodluck Jonathan or the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, the APC candidate held a ten-point lead over the President.”

Finally when asked if Jonathan was doing a good or bad job fighting corruption, 59% Nigerians thought Jonathan was doing a bad job fighting corruption.

”The voice of the people was clear: The nation is going in the wrong direction. The nation wants change and would not vote to re-elect Jonathan in part because the number one issue to Nigerians is jobs and the nation believes Jonathan has no credibility on the issue of job creation,” APC said.

Meanwhile, the president’s spokesperson Dr. Rueben Abati has torn apart the APC polls describing it as “a great exercise in quackery.”

His words: “I have read a statement issued by Alhaji Lai Mohammed with regards to the plan by the APC to unveil its manifesto on Thursday.

“The APC according to Mohammed, is presenting its poll on the basis on certain poll that it conducted which shows the administration in a bad light.

“I have read the details of the poll purportedly conducted by the APC. To start with, polling in any category at all is a very serious business. It is not something that any roadside adventurer can engage in.

“What the APC has done is that, it has abandoned its core business of politics to dabble into polling, and what it has come up with is a voodoo exercise.”

“APC is not licensed to be a polling agency, it has neither the expertise and the exposure nor the track record. It is not surprising that the outcome of its so-called polling is dubious.”

“It says for example that if elections were to be held today, whether Nigerians will vote for President Goodluck Jonathan or the candidate of the APC. To the best of everybody’s knowledge, the APC does not even have a candidate yet. It has not named anybody as its candidate, the INEC has not even blown any whistle to initiate the submission of names of candidates.”

“The APC on the basis of an unknown candidate is saying that their candidate will have a 10-point lead. I don’t think Nigerians are that gullible. It does not make sense, it does not look objective.”

“At that level, I think this is a kind of polling in which you work to a predetermined answer. The polling is a very good illustration of quackery.”

“They also came up with a claim that President Jonathan has done nothing to create jobs. This is nothing but a gross display of ignorance. The ignorance is self-imposed because the administration has done more than enough and will continue to do a lot to demonstrate how it has been creating jobs.”