Nigerians pass vote of confidence on Buhari, find out the support he has

Editor’s note: About 54% of Nigerians have passed a vote of confidence on the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, saying the nation is moving in the right direction under the new leader.

However, 57% of Nigerians said the improvement has not trickled down to their personal economy which they said is getting worse. They, however, lamented that the improvement has not impacted positively in their personal economy.

NAIJ.com brings you the results of a recent poll released by the International Republican Institute (IRI).

As we see, Nigerians remain polarized  between the north and the south, but support the democratic process and believe that democracy has improved since the 2015 general election.

“This poll attests to the significant work that Nigeria’s government must do to address regional divisions and other issues of governmental responsiveness and accountability affecting the Nigerian people,” John Tomaszewski, IRI’s acting regional director for Africa, said.

“But it also highlights the tremendous achievement of the Nigerian people in committing to the democratic process despite  the difficulty of past elections, and is a promising  indicator for the country’s democratic development since the return to democracy in 1999,” he added.

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While overall 54% of Nigerians feel that their country is headed in the right direction, divisions in perceptions of the country’s trajectory are stark. Almost half of respondents in the north-east (40%) said the country is headed strongly in the right direction, compared to just 10% in the south-east, where 49% believe that Nigeria is moving strongly in the wrong direction.

A similar split can be seen in regional perceptions of the economy: 75% of respondents in the south-east think the economy has gotten worse, compared with 44% in the north-east.

While respondents in the north and in the south differ on a number of issues, questions regarding elections indicate commitment to the concept of the democratic process nationwide. Sixty-eight percent of respondents indicated their intention to vote in the next election, and 46% feel that the condition of democracy had changed for the better since the March-April 2015.

Strikingly, the majority of respondents (59%) consider democracy to be more important than prosperity, compared to 37% who find prosperity to be more important to them.

This preference for democracy comes despite  the crippling economic challenges facing the country, with 57% of respondents reporting that their personal economic situation has gotten worse over the past year.

The survey also reveals a widespread perception that corruption is declining, with 53% of respondents reporting that corruption has decreased in the past year. However, it is important to note that this perception is largely split between the north-south lines, with more negative views noted in the south than in the north.

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