Feb. 26, 2013
NewsRescue- Two independent polls, one conducted by a new Nigerian youth political party, the Sovereign National Party (SNP) and the other by NewsRescue editorial board, suggest that the power situation in Nigeria is actually worse, as CNN had claimed and not better or satisfactory to Nigerians as the country’s president purported.
Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan and CNN anchor, Christiane Amanpour clearly can not get enough of each other on the power issue.
Both polls had almost identical results. The NewsRescue team had noticed the heated exchange between the President and CNN’s senior presenter and initiated its poll right after. The results showed of 104 respondents, that 63% felt the power situation was worse, 14% saw it as ‘the same,’ and only 23% agreed with Nigeria’s president, that it was better.
The SovereignNationalParty.com website poll had thrice as many respondents, with 318 votes in, 50% of Nigerians polled thought power was worse, 29% said it was the same and 21% selected ‘better.’
It can be recalled that after the January 23rd heated interview in which the duo had gone after each other, –which by the way, reports claim the president paid $60,000 to secure– with the president of Nigeria claiming that ‘power was one sector that Nigerians were pleased with the improvement,’ Christiane Amanpour had accused him of not being honest. To which the president attacked CNN’s presenter as ‘politicizing.’ This accusation is common in politics with rival parties and candidates, but was surprising coming from a president to a foreign reporter who it would be very unusual to be partisan by definition.
Clearly Amanpour did not get enough of it, as after a power outage at the United States super bowl competition which took place on February 3rd, she again revisited the matter, interviewing Nigerians at random and reporting that the majority agreed with her that power was worse.
Her post super bowl video:
And neither did the Nigerian president. His special adviser on media, Reno Omokri published:
“Why did Amanpour do this? Her show was a calculated attempt to cover the national embarrassment of the Super Bowl outage by ridiculing Nigeria and video testimonials of Nigerians affirming that power in their country had improved would not fit into her pre-conceived narrative of selling the misery of African nations to the world, hence they were not used in her report.”
Public opinion polls were certainly indicated in the mater, to determine who was telling the truth and who was lying, in the Nations best interest.
‘We have to know the truth…it is easy in this technological world. People are dying, they can not continue the endless corruption and lies, people are dying from this wickedness,’ a member of the SNP party stated. ‘We are no longer sitting duck!’
There were many frustrated Facebook responses on the SNP website poll page. Complaining about the power situation was the predominant reaction. Here are some:
Pst Graceful-Godfrey Ohio · Top Commenter
With the N500 monthly compulsory deduction and high tariff, there is no difference. They are exploiting us.
Oyagade Idowu · Lagos, Nigeria
more than worse.
Anumudu Israel · Suru Lere, Lagos, Nigeria
we cant understand the transformation goodluck is talking about I regret vottimg for him and with increase in tariff we have less light.
Lets not deceive ourselves for political reasons, power situation is still the same in my area. Those that may have the power constantly may be living in either GRA, where the big politicians reside, or in some areas in the heart of the city. Again, some state govt has tried in their own way but this is very minute compared with a larger number of states. The bills has increased but we are not seeing the light.
there has been no change or improvement in electricity. we’re even paying more than before. we use to pay the sum of #5,000; now we pay as much as #20,000. yet we hardly have power.
