While 84 percent voters across the nation gave President Muhammadu Buhari thumbs-up for putting his best foot forward in fighting corruption, only a disgruntled 20 percent from the Niger Delta did, according to a Buharimeter poll result released Friday.
And, you bet, former President Goodluck Jonathan is among the Buhari supporters from the oil-bearing region.
Jonathan told Bloomberg in a June exclusive interview that he, too, is in full support of the anti-graft war. It doesn’t matter his cousins, dames, and yesmen in the last administration are getting hell from the EFCC investigating their alleged mismanagement of $15 billion.
According to the pollster, Buhari’s support was highest in his home turf northwest—60.2 percent; it’s followed by 46.8 percent in the northeast, 32.9 percent in the north-central, and 35.8 percent in the southwest.
Even the south-south, still stewing with anger because Buhari upstaged their son Jonathan in the March 2015 presidential election, has 20.4 percent—higher than the southeast which polled the lowest—10.7 percent.
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Apart from the anti-corruption category where the president had a good showing in the first year report by the democracy-tracking NGO, economy and security gave him a dip in popularity.
“Nearly two-thirds of the respondents rate the government’s performance in employment generation as either “very poor” (39.8%) or “poor” (22%),” the report stated.
The violence of the Niger Delta Avengers, Fulani herdsmen, and other rag-tag criminals also took the shine off Buhari’s command performance in degrading Boko Haram in the northeast.
Out of the 222 promises Buharimeter tracked during the APC campaign in 2015, the report said only one promise was rated as “achieved” by the voters.
“Forty-five promises were rated as “on-going”, while 179 were described as “not rated yet,” the report said.
Although the presidency and APC have always insisted Buhari is performing, the president, on occasions, has confirmed he is unfortunate leading Nigeria at this time.