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Eighty-one percent of eligible Nigerians are willing to vote in forthcoming elections, according to a poll released yesterday.

The poll, ‘Current
Pulse of Nation’s Survey’, carried out on topical national issues,
sampled 5000 respondents, aged 18 years and above, from across the
country.

‘Current Pulse of
Nation’s Survey’ is conducted by Research and Marketing Services (RMS),
an affiliate of TNS Global, a market research company and Gallup
International’s representative in the country.

Adeola Tejumola,
the CEO of the company, during a press briefing to announce the
statistics, said the polls was centred on the forthcoming general
elections because it is the most topical issue as the country
celebrates its 50th Independence Day Anniversary.

‘More Nigerians will vote next year’

Mr. Tejumola said
the reason for the high figure could probably be attributed to the “one
man, one vote campaign”, or INEC (Independent National Electoral
Commission) administration suddenly improved, or just a reflection of
the governance of the day.” “The challenges people raise concern for
the most were the epileptic power supply, the increasing crime rate,
coupled with the regular kidnapping going on, and corruption continues
to rank high on the list,” he said. “For me, the fact that people are
beginning to be aware that corruption is an issue, that they
acknowledge that it does exist and the need to eradicate corruption in
itself, is welcoming news.”

Another problem identified as major by the respondents, were low education quality and poor state of basic facilities.

Only 35 percent of
the respondents were, however, confident that the forth coming
elections will be free and fair, with half of the respondents
expressing concerns about the success of the elections, in spite of the
81 percent willing to vote.

Aggrey Maposa, the
company’s chief operating officer (COO), said the difference shows that
people think the election process has improved, “though not yet
perfect.” “Compared with the previous challenges that INEC used to
have, people have seen improvements in the process of the elections.
Even though, they understand that the process is not yet perfect, they
are willing to vote and express their opinion,” he said.

‘Poor power is killing businesses’

Mr. Tejumola also
said 81 percent of Nigeria’s eligible voters support President Goodluck
Jonathan’s candidature in the race, noting that the polls was conducted
before the presidential aspirants announced to run for office. “But
it’s not just one-sided; if 81 percent are saying that President
Jonathan should run, in the same report, 54 percent are saying they are
not happy with the crime rate, 24 percent are saying that corruption is
killing them, and 67 percent are saying that the epileptic power supply
is killing their business,” he added.

The report also
states that 63 percent of Nigerians will consider character in voting
for a presidential candidate, while 33 percent would consider political
affiliation. Thirty-one percent will consider political ideology and 27
percent will put the content of the manifesto ahead of other things.
The poll also shows a slight popularity advantage for the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), going into the next elections, while Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) had marginal drops in the number of respondents planning to vote for them.

Mr. Tejumola,
however, advised presidential aspirants to consider Nigerians’
expectations going into the next elections. “Expectations of Nigerians
include generation of employment opportunities, dependable electricity
to drive national development, poverty eradication and free qualitative
education, amongst others; a serious government would want to
concentrate on doing these things for the people,” he said.

Mr. Tejumola also said the research was carried out by the company
as “its Corporate Social Responsibility”, and promised that the company
will continue to sample public opinion on “topical issues affecting the
nation.”