The latest data by Google Trends on the forthcoming presidential election have shown that the Nigerian electorate wanted to know more about the presidential candidate of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his vice-presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima as the duo attracted the most search interest in the last 30 days, Google Trends’ data have shown.
Tinubu attracted 42% of the presidential candidates’ search interest as of January 17, 2023. This is coming about 37 days to the presidential election which is scheduled for February 25,2023.
The APC presidential candidate is followed by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who attracted 28% of the search interest in the last 30 days, according to Google Trends.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, attracted 27% of the presidential candidates’ search interest during the same period, while Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) attracted just 3% of the search interest.
Concerning the search interest for the vice-presidential candidates, Kashim Shettima, the vice-presidential candidate of the APC attracted 33% of the search interest and is being followed closely by Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed of the LP who attracted 32% of the search interest.
Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP attracted 27% of the search interest while Isa Hamisu of the Action Peoples Party (APP), as well as Bishop Isaac Idahosa of NNPP got 6% and 2% of the search interest respectively.
It should be noted that Google Trends’ search interest is not the same thing as polling data and that a spike in search interest for an individual does not necessarily mean that individual is winning.
The search interest for Tinubu came mainly from Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Katsina, Kano, Bauchi and Taraba. Other states are Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Lagos, Edo, Delta and Cross River.
Atiku’s search interest came from Borno, Gombe, Adamawa, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi and Benue states, while Obi’s search interest came from Nasarawa, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom states.
Rabi Musa Kwankwaso’s search interest came from Yobe State.
The Nigerian armed forces, and their sister agencies, have assured all Nigerians that the pockets of insecurity in the country would not hinder the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
