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President's Job Approval Rating Reaches Peak of 57% in August 2013

Abuja, Nigeria. September 3rd, 2013 – Latest monthly governance poll result released by NOIPolls Limited has revealed that almost 6 in 10 (57%) Nigerians approve of President Goodluck Jonathan’s job performance in the month of August 2013. This current score depicts a 4-Point increase in the job approval rating of the President from July (53%) to August (57%)and also marks the highest approval rating the President has scored since January 2013. Furthermore, same as in July, the results indicated that 42% of Nigerians rated the performance of the current administration as average. However, there was a slight decline (2-point) in the proportion of Nigerians (36%) that had experienced some improvements in the power supply in August. Despite this slight decline, the President’s approval rating continued to soar, particularly in the South-East (76%), North Central (70%) and South-South (66%) regions. These were the key findings from the Governance Snap Poll conducted in the week of August 26th 2013. 

The results presented are the eighth in the monthly series of governance polls conducted by NOI Polls to gauge the opinions and perceptions of Nigerians regarding three crucial elements – the approval rating of the president, the performance of the current administration, and the situation of power supplyin the country.

Respondents to the poll were asked three specific questions. Firstly, in order to gauge the approval rating of President Goodluck Jonathan over the past 1 month (August) respondents were asked: Do you approve or disapprove of the performance of President Jonathan in the past 1 month?: The result from this question revealed that, overall, almost 6 in 10 Nigerians surveyed (57%: 14%+43%) approve of the President’s job performance over the past month, where 14% strongly approve and 43% approve. These figures clearly depict a 4-point increase in the proportion of Nigerians that approve of the President’s performance from July (53%) to August (57%); and emerged as the best rating so far in eight months. Comparatively, a total of 19% of respondents indicated disapproval of the President’s performance, with 15% indicating they disapprove and 4% strongly disapprove, while, 24% of the respondents remained neutral in rating his performance as they neither approve nor disapprove. 

Assessing the President’s performance across geo-political zones showed that the South-East  had the highest proportion of respondents that approved of the President’s performance in the past one month up from 72% in July. This is followed by the North-Central zone with 70% (26%+44%) up from 56% in July and the South-South zone with 66% (12%+54%) up from 62% in July. The highest proportion of respondents that disapproved of the President’s performance were from the North-West zone with 31% (28%+3%) down from 40% in July, followed by the North-East zone with 26% (14%+12%) down from 31% in July. The largest number of respondents that were neutral towards the president’s performance was from the South-West zone with 33% up from 26% in July. In addition, more female (60%) than male (54%) respondents approve of the President’s job performance.

A general assessment of the president’s rating in an eight months series showed that the approval rating of the President’s performance initially experienced an increase from January (50%) to February (54%),and then experienced a continuous decline from February to April (42%). Afterwards, it increased in May (44%) and was stable in June and has experienced a continuous increase in three months from June(44%) to August (57%); the highest rating so far in 2013.  

Secondly, in order to measure the performance of the current administration respondents were asked:How would you rate the performance of this current administration in the past 1 month? Overall, the majority (42%) are of the opinion that the current administration has performed averagely. In addition, while a total of 35% indicated they performed well, where 8% said they’ve performed very well and 27% said they’ve performed well; 23% rated their performance as poor, with 4% percent saying they’ve performed very poorly and 19% saying they’ve performed poorly. Furthermore, similar to the President’s approval rating, the 35% positive rating of the administration marks a 7-point increase from the 28% in July 2013.

Gauging these results across geo-political zones further revealed that the South-South zone had the highest proportion of respondents (54%) that rated the performance of the current administration as average. In addition, while the South-East zone records the highest number of respondents (49%) that rated the performance of the current administration positively, the North-East (34%) accounted for the highest number of respondents that rated their performance negatively.

Again, an assessment of the performance of the current administration in eight months revealed that the job approval rating of the current administration experienced an increase from January (22%) to February (24%) and then declined in two months consecutively till April (16%). From the month of May(21%) it again experienced a continuous increase till August (35%), which represents the highest figures in eight months.

Lastly, in order to evaluate the general situation of power in Nigeria within the past month, respondents were asked: How would you describe power in your area in the past 1 month? Findings revealed that overall, 36% (5%+31%) of Nigerians experienced an improvement in the power situation over the past month, where 5% experienced very much improvement and 31% experienced little improvement.  In addition, (27%) of the respondents were of the opinion that “it remains bad”, 21% indicated that “there’s no difference at all”, while 16% of the respondents stated that the power situation “is very bad and has gone worse”.

Analysis based on geo-political zones showed that, majority of the respondents that experienced an improvement in the power situation in August were from the South-South zone (53%). The North-Central zones with 29% represents the highest number of respondents that say “there’s no difference at all” in the power situation over the past month. In addition, the North-East zone accounted for the highest proportion of respondents (42%) that indicated power supply in their area “remains bad” while the South-West zone (26%) accounted for the most number of respondents that say “it’s very bad has gone worse”.

An overview of the power situation in eight months depicts a 2-points decline in the proportion of respondents that experienced improvement in the power situation in their area compared to July’s 38% score. Findings also revealed that January and February recorded the best power ratings with 47% and44% respectively, while March & April (31% each) recorded the lowest proportion of respondents that experienced an improvement.

In conclusion, findings from the current poll have revealed that the President’s performance rating reached its peak in eight months at 57%. This figure depicts a 4-Point increase in the approval rating of the President’s performance from July (53%) to August (57%). Also, 42% of respondents were of the opinion that the administration performed averagely. Interestingly, there was a 2-points decline in the proportion of Nigerians that had experienced improvements in power supply for the month of August(36%) compared to July (38%). However, despite the decline, the President’s job approval rating still soared; suggesting that beyond power supply, the President’s performance on other critical areas of the economy & polity may be responsible for his continued positive ratings. Perhaps media reports around heightened security & reported death of Abubakar Shekau, the strides in railway transportation & commencement of rail haulage from Lagos to Kano, as well as the formal opening of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport & the maiden flight of Ethiopian Airlines, which will serve as a major economic booster, may have endeared respondents; particularly in the South-East region where the President had the highest job approval rating of 76%. 

Survey Methods

The opinion poll was conducted on August 26th to 28th 2013. It involved telephone interviews of a random nationwide sample. 1,004 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed. With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results obtained are statistically precise - within a range of plus or minus 3%. NOIPolls Limited is Nigeria’s leading opinion polling and research organisation, which works in technical partnership with the Gallup Organisation (USA), to conduct periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria. More information is available at www.noi-polls.com