The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as “totally unnecessary and clearly misplaced”, the Presidency’s criticism of the results of the poll it conducted ahead of 2015 general elections.
The results of the poll showed that President Goodluck Jonathan would lose the presidential election to a candidate of the APC if elections were to be conducted this moment.
Reacting to the outcome of the poll, Presidential Media Adviser, Reuben Abati, described it as “voodoo, dubious, suspicious and an exercise in quackery”.
But, APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, while fielding questions at a press conference insisted the results were credible and conducted by a reputable firm.
According to him, the party commissioned “the largest ever public opinion survey in Nigerian history to determine the current status of things in the nation directly from those who knew best – the actual people of Nigeria. “Unfortunately, not everyone who read our statement understood it, hence the totally unnecessary and clearly misplaced criticism by the presidency, which tagged our effort ‘Voodoo Polling’ and said it does not know when the APC became an expert on opinion poll.
“We have no doubt that the methodology adopted to evolve our Road map and the results of our survey took the Presidency by surprise and rankled them so much, since they haven’t seen any unbiased survey results in quite some time.
The opposition party says “The Presidency was clearly confused. They seemed to think the APC conducted this survey ourselves. No, they got things wrong. “Unlike the PDP, we do not conduct surveys ourselves; instead, we commission professionals to conduct our polls. We used experts in the field so that the results are accurate and above reproach.
“In this instance our poll was conducted by KA Research Limited, Africa Division. It was the largest survey of its kind ever conducted in Nigeria. I understand how this might have been confusing to the Presidency, since the PDP does not use unbiased, professional pollsters. “That explains why the results were such a shock to the PDP. The Presidency suggested we were practicing some kind of voodoo; it seems that the voodoo is coming entirely from the PDP and its survey company”. The APC also claimed that the poll which the Presidency referred to and conducted by NOI was actually carried put by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
According to the party, “Who is the PDP/Presidency’s polling company? It is a firm named NOI Polls. And just who is this firm?
“Do those initials ring a bell with anyone? The Presidency’s pollster is none other than Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Coordinating Minister herself! “And considering she has recently lost track of more than 20 Billion dollars at the NNPC, why would anyone trust any numbers she ever produced?
“If there’s anyone practicing voodoo, its NOI polls. And when you ask the Coordinating Minister about her polling company, make sure to also ask her about the money that’s disappeared, and that the people of Nigeria need their money back”!
About the company that conducted the survey, KA Research Limited (KARL), APC says it “is a privately owned international research company, based in Brussels, Belgium and Istanbul, Turkey; operating in more than 60 countries with its own offices, subsidiaries and affiliates in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA Region). “The company specializes in social and political polling; economic and media research in EMEA Region; its clientele includes private, governmental, non-governmental and academic clients, think-tanks; such as World Bank, United Nations, UNICEF, UNDP, Save The Children, USAID, DFID, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, CSIS, Brooking Institutions, National Democratic Institute, ABC News, BBC World Service, NHK Japan, ARD Germany, Deutsche Welle, Radio France International, Coca-Cola and Burger King Corporations; the company is also cooperating and working closely with major global research and consulting companies in EMEA Regions. “We hope the the PDP will also come clean on its own survey company; the fact that it is owned by a serving Minister whose initials are used to name the company, and the fact that it has been feeding doctored opinion poll to Nigerians,” Mohammed challenged.
