Nine of 10 Nigerians believe country headed in ‘wrong direction’ – Afrobarometer

Nine out of ten Nigerians, or 89 percent of the population, believe the country is going in the “wrong direction,” Afrobarometer, a non-partisan survey research network revealed in its recent report.

This is a 20-percentage-point increase from the year 2020, according to the organisation that has been conducting public opinion surveys on democracy, government, the economy, and society since 1999.

“Large majorities describe the country’s economic condition (85 percent) and their personal living conditions (71 percent) as “fairly bad” or “very bad,” according to Afrobarmoeter’s survey.

“Eight in 10 Nigerians (79 percent) experienced moderate or high levels of lived poverty during the previous year, up 20 percentage points compared to 2020.”

“Management of the economy (39 percent) and unemployment (35 percent) rank as the second-and third-most important problems that citizens want the government to address, outranked only by crime/insecurity (41 percent), it said.

These negative trends indicate Nigerians’ assessments of the country’s overall direction, its economic situation, and their personal living conditions have worsened significantly over the past two years, according to the Afrobarometer’s survey released February 2023.

Despite these difficulties, seven in 10 Nigerians (70 percent) say democracy is preferable to any other kind of government and that management of the economy and unemployment join crime/insecurity and electricity as the most important problems that citizens want the next administration to address,” the report report noted.

Evidently, Nigerians trooped out to vote in the seventh democratic administration in a keenly contested election, February 25, 2023, which saw Bola Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) declared president-elect by the country’s electoral body.

In his acceptance speech on Wednesday, Tinubu said: “I thank the Nigerian people for their abiding belief in our democracy. I shall be a fair leader to all Nigerians. I will be in tune with your aspirations, charge up your energies and harness your talents to deliver a nation that we can be proud of.”

Assuring Nigerians of improved governance, the president-elect said, “You have bestowed upon me the highest honour you can bestow upon one individual. “In return, as your future president and commander-in-chief, I will give you my all. Peace, harmony, and prosperity will serve as the pillars of the society we seek to construct. When you see what we do in the next years, you will be proud to call yourself a Nigerian.”