The Polls Are Nerve-racking!

The Polls Are Nerve-racking!

Last Sunday, this newspaper, in its tradition of delivering responsible journalism as well as setting stellar examples in the political environment, did a state-by-state analysis of how Nigerians might vote during the February 16, presidential election, the summary of which suggested the election was looking good for the opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, all things being equal.

And for reasons of reliably building safety into some of the projections of the fieldwork analyses, the Sunday THISDAY refused to come up with a conclusion, thus leaving the readers with an open mind to draw up their own inferences.

A day after the THISDAY report, an international pollster, Williams and Associates, released the results of its own fieldwork too and it also clearly projected an Atiku victory. Two days after this, another international poll expert, Teneo released yet a poll, which again gave the election to Atiku with 57 per cent to Muhammadu Buhari’s 42 per cent, albeit with the fears of possible rigging by deploying the weight of incumbency.

Now, the interesting thing about these polls is that they also projected a Buhari victory in 2015 and it so came to pass. At the time, the opposition applauded these projections and recognised their authority in this area, because those projections were in sync with the prayers of those on this side now.

Unfortunately, since Sunday that THISDAY led the pack, the ruling party and their social and traditional media hawks have been unpretentiously uneasy – dismissing, discrediting and calling the polls their many chosen names. It is understandable though. When reality strikes, the shock is naturally inconceivable.
But a word for them: HYPOCRITES!

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