By Okereke Udoakpuenyi, YeyeNews.com, October 7, 2021
A nationwide poll conducted in Nigeria across all the states of the federation and Abuja, FCT, cutting across many ethnic groups in the country, age group, gender, political affiliation, and income, and conducted in various forms – by phone, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and in-person – has shown that Buhari is the worst thing that has ever happened to Nigeria since 1914 amalgamation by Lord Lugard. The result of the poll shows that Buhari won by 70.37 percent.
The poll, conducted by 72 YeyeNews.com reporters and seasoned volunteers, were in two different formats: first, respondents were asked to list three things they considered as calamities that had fallen over Nigeria since 1914; second, the respondents were giving a list of events which YeyeNews.com garnered from Nigerian newspapers, magazines and website as national calamities that happened to Nigeria and asked to choose the worst three. It should be noted that these calamities were not the opinion of YeyeNews.com.
Some of the calamities YeyeNews.com reporters were able to gather to prepare the questionnaire include the 1960 Independence, the 1914 Amalgamation, the 1966 Pogrom, the 1967 to 1970 Civil War, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, the June 12 Annulment, Goodluck Jonathan, the 1966 Coup, the Odi and Zaki-Ibiam Massacre, and others.
Using these two formats, YeyeNews.com reporters and volunteers asked the respondents to list three worst things that had befallen Nigeria since 1914 in order of severity and with reasons. After that, respondents were presented with the list of the calamities prepared by YeyeNews.com and asked to reappraise their selections. In addition to most of the things in the list by YeyeNews.com, some of the worse things volunteered by respondents include the British, 1967 to 1970 Igbo Genocide, the Asaba Massacre, the 1983 Coup, the Fulanis, Shehu Shagari, Yakubu Gowon, the Hausas, the Igbos, the Killing of Ahmadu Bello, Nyamiri, the Murder of Ken Saro Wiwa, the Odi and Zaki-Ibiam, Drug Abuse in the North, the Yorubas, Christianity, Islam, Fulani Herdsmen, Banditry, Boko Haram, Goodluck Jonathan for Making Buhari Possible, Obsanjo for Making Jonathan Possible, and some others.
Despite the fact that there was a whole range of calamities to choose from, YeyeNews.com found that across southern Nigeria and the middle belt the name Buhari was always among the three worst calamities. “He is either first, second or third in many places”, a professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Nnamdi Azikiwe University hired by YeyeNews.com observed. In the Northwest, only 34.67 percent of the respondents included him among the three worse things; in the Northeast, it was about 48.92 percent; Northcentral 78.54 percent; Southwest 92.14 percent; South-south 88.73 percent; Southeast 79.22 percent.
YeyeNews.com reporters were puzzled while taking polls among Ndigbo and people in the Southeast when the name of Buhari constantly kept coming in among the worst three. “I expected the 1967 to 1970 Civil War to be the worst thing, but it seems many Ndigbo are more pissed off by Buhari than the events of the civil war”, Ngoroge Achebe, YeyeNews.com senior correspondent, observed.
Achebe was spot on based on some encounters some YeyeNews.com experienced in different parts of Igboland. At Afor Nnobi market in Nnobi town, Anambra State, a particular man in his forties who spoke to our reporter listed Buhari as the first worst thing and listed him again as the second and the third. When our reporter asked him why, “My father was able to go to school during the civil war and his father – my grandfather – was able to train him. My father had me after the civil war and trained me to the university level. With my second-class upper degree and other qualifications, I can’t pay my daughter’s school fees under Buhari”, he said dejectedly with tears swelling up in his eyes.
In Owerri, YeyeNews.com reporter was nearly beaten up by angry youths. The youths had answered that Buhari was the worst thing, but the reporter had suggested that for every Igbo person, the Civil War should be the worst thing. “Do you know what we go through to survive? Do you want to see kwashiorkor to know that we are suffering”, they told the reporter after she calmed them down by saying that she just wanted to know how serious they were about Buhari being the worst.
However, in Sabon Gari, Kano, many Hausa and Fulani men polled listed “Nyamiri” (a derogatory term for Igbo people coined from “Nye m mmiri” or “Give me water”) as the worst thing that happened to Nigeria. One respondent said in Hausa that “Nigeria would be a better country without nyamiri”; another said he liked Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for what he and his group did to Gideon Akaluka, a nyamiri. Other calamities prominently mentioned in the Northwest include the killing of Ahmadu Bello, Christianity, and the Yorubas.
In the Northeast, Boko Haram was easily the number one calamity being mentioned by people, followed by other banditries. YeyeNews.com learned that Buhari’s name came in as well since, according to many respondents, he could not squash the terrorists despite his promises and his military background. In the Northcentral, so many chose Buhari and said that the unchallenged killings and displacements of indigenes of the region by Fulani bandits were sanctioned by Buhari and his Fulani administration.
In Egbeda part of Lagos, Mr. Yemi, whom our reporter polled, was with some real estate agents. He told our reporter that Buhari’s administration had finished him. He said he was selling the last land he inherited from his father. He added that with the exchange rate out of control, he didn’t know what would happen to the proceeds he would get from the sales as he was a small-time importer. “I don’t know what to do; I don’t know what will happen to me and my family financially since Buhari still has two more years to go. Honestly, I don’t mind sharing the money from this land with Buhari if that will make him go back to Daura.”
Yeyenews.com tried to get the reaction of the Presidency but no response as at press time: Ajuri Ngelale, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Public Affairs, did not return our calls; Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, did not respond to our text messages.
