An opinion poll recently released has shown that only 48% of Nigerians are aware of the ambition of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)’s presidential candidate Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. The poll conducted by NOI Polls Limited and financed by ANAP foundation used survey methodologies developed by Gallup Organization (USA) revealed that, of the 19 presidential candidates, only four of the candidates are considered relevant by the respondents in the poll.
The poll result shows that 46% of Nigerians are aware of Ibrahim Shekarau’s (of the All Nigerians People Party) ambition while 48% are aware of Nuhu Ribadu’s (Action Congress of Nigeria) presidential bid. 73% indicated knowledge of Muhammadu Buhari’s (of the Congress for Progressive Change) and 93% confirmed knowing that Goodluck Jonathan, of the People’s Democratic Party is running for the presidency. The remaining candidates had less than 20% of Nigerians, knowing of their ambition.
The poll also showed that President, Goodluck Jonathan has earned a 53 percent lead two weeks ahead of the presidential election, which claims that “53% of the respondents think that Goodluck Jonathan will win the April presidential position.” The president’s bid received a further boost according to the poll which went on to state that “most (68%) approve of Goodluck Jonathan’s performance as President.”
However, the founder of ANAP foundation (a non-partisan NGO), Atedo Peterside while addressing journalists at the presentation of the poll result stated that “the remaining balance of 47% respondents think that either Buhari, Ribadu or Shekarau will win the presidential election while some of them (the respondents) say they do not know.”
The former banker also noted that the poll result supports the recent presidential debate which invited only the top four candidates identified in this poll, saying “in effect all the others are non-starters.”
According to Mr Peterside, “the overriding objective of the poll is to empirically establish which of the presidential candidates stands the greatest chance of receiving the people’s mandate to ascend to the nation’s highest office.” The poll further revealed that “almost all Nigerians have given at least some thought to the April elections” and that “nearly 3 out of 4 of the respondents have voted in at least one previous election.”
Despite the challenges that marred the recent voter’s registration, the poll also stated that “almost all Nigerians had registered or planned to register to vote in the elections.” It also gathered that “an extension of the period for the voter registration exercise would enable registration of more eligible voters in Nigeria” .
The poll designed in English language was translated into the major Nigerian languages (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin English) and distributed across the six geo-political zones of the country to a representative random sample of Nigerians.
When asked about the spread of the respondents across the country, the CEO of NOI Polls, Ndubuisi Anyanwu, told NEXT that “1,000 people were used across the urban and rural centres”, adding that “the 1,000 mark is the set standard used by Gallup (the international polling organization)”. NOI poll’s research analyst noted that +/-3percent marginal error was used for the presidential poll and it was carried out from February 11 to February 28. The presidential election is scheduled to hold on April 9, 2011.

http://africandissent.com/poll-of-nigerians-are-aware-of-ribadus-ambition-p121-100.htm

Whoever believes all these polls is deluding himself.

So what should should we believe? Methinks, that we need a maverick billionaire to pay observers with the latest hi-tech gadgets in each and every polling unit. If not a billionaire, a super election observing organisation composed of progressive individuals.