Nextier’s pollsters are partisans, Nigerians shouldn’t trust them

The APC presidential campaign council has rejected a poll by Nextier that said Peter Obi, the presidential candidate from Labor Partyis the candidate to be defeated in the February 25 election

The election, Nextier said, will be a run-off to determine the final winner.

No presidential election in the history of Nigeria’s electoral democracy has been completed.

Even the very close 1979 election was finally resolved by the nomination of the deceased National Party of Nigeria (NPN) candidate, Shehu Shagari, by the Supreme Court to thwart the main challenger in the election, Obafemi Awolowo, of the United Party of Nigeria (UPN).

The APC campaign council described the Nextier poll as a laugh and advised Nigerians not to take it seriously.

A statement signed by Bayo Onanuga on behalf of the campaign council released to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja revealed that the pollsters who conducted the poll were members of the LP presidential campaign council.

The statement also noted that any poll conducted by such partisan and tainted organizations should be taken with a grain of salt.

The sample size of the so-called poll and the methodology used cannot withstand the test of integrity, the statement said.

Some polls conducted in the last quarter of 2022 by organizations such as the ANAP Foundation and Bloomberg also called for the election of Mr. Obi, a former PDP chieftain and two-term governor of Anambra State.

“We want to state categorically that Peter Obi is not the main contender in the upcoming presidential election in Nigeria and no fantasy polls and fairy tales can replace the material facts,” the statement said.

Read the full statement below:

NEXTIER, PETER OBI AND FARCICAL ELECTION RESULTS

We are bound as a matter of public record to respond to another hilarious Presidential Poll result released by an organization calling itself Nextier, a public policy consulting firm that overnight became Gallup Nigeria Poll or Ipsos.

We are reacting for the sake of unsuspecting Nigerians, so that they are not misled by the Patrick Okigbo-led organization, which seems to have an agenda to create confusion and chaos in our country.

For starters, Nigerians should know that the promoters of Nextier are members of the Presidential Campaign Council of Peter Obi and active campaigners for the Labor Party Presidential Candidate.

Any poll conducted by a highly partisan and prejudicedly tainted organization should be taken with a pinch of salt.

This is apart from the fact that the sample size of the so-called poll and the methodology used cannot stand the test of integrity.

It is quite surprising that the Nextier Poll which reflects the South East region with more than 90% of the registered votes also put Peter Obi first. APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in six South West States including Lagos.

Assuming without actually admitting that Peter Obi will enjoy a home advantage in this part of the country, we then wonder why the pollsters in Nextier, if they have a modicum of respect for the intelligence of Nigerians, thought that the factors that will propel a landslide victory for Obi in the southeast will not be able to APC candidates in their own South West language.

Next Pollsters also put the Labor Party ahead of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in his home state of Adamawa.

How ridiculous can the Nextier Pollsters get?

Nextier Pollsters called the entire Labor Party South-South region with 60% in Akwa-Ibom, the base of the Chairman of the PDP presidential campaign council.

Partisan polls gave Bayelsa 62.9% for the Labor Party and also claimed the LP would win Delta 65.9%, the home of the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate.

Jesters on Nextier also claimed Obi will win Rivers 77.8%, Edo 76.9% and Cross Rivers 63.2%. It does not matter that in these states the Labor Party has no councilors in any ward.

A summary of Nextier’s face-to-face national opinion poll shows that Peter Obi is the preferred candidate of 37% of Nigerians with the conclusion that the Presidential election will be a run-off.

We dare to say this is wishful thinking without a basis in reality and reality.

It is important to alert Nigerians and the international community that the Pollsters at Nextier are working with the Labor Party and the poll results are all cooked up, far from reality.

We suspect that the results of the first and second polls are a pretext to cause political crisis and unrest in Nigeria after February 25. They may be preparing the ground for violent protests by Obi’s supporters who will allege rigging when their candidate is defeated in the election. which is unlikely to even come 3 far.

We want to state categorically that Peter Obi is not the main contender in the upcoming presidential election in Nigeria and no fantasy polls and fairy tales can replace the material facts.

We would like to note that the Nextier Poll is useless for three reasons:

First, a sample size of 3,000 is statistically insignificant in an election with more than 93 million registered voters and admits of a larger margin of error than claimed.

Second, the sample distribution does not reflect voter demographics or variation in voter turnout across states.

Third, the main purpose of the Nextier Poll is to report a foregone conclusion so that when the Labor Party loses by a wide margin, its rabid supporters can start another violent protest, similar to the devastating #ENDSARS riots of 2020.

Bayo Onanuga
Director, Media and Publicity
APC Presidential Campaign Council
February 5, 2023