Buhari’s First Year in Office Gets Approval Rating of 64%

• Approves commission on ease of doing business

Iyobosa Uwugiaren and Tobi Soniyi in Abuja

The public opinion poll conducted by NOIPolls Limited in a series of monthly presidential approval ratings to appraise the job performance of President Muhammadu Buhari since assuming office on May 29, 2015, has revealed that the president got an average job approval rating of 64 per cent.

However, Buhari was rated very low on job creation at 14 per cent, and handling of the economy at 21 per cent.
The rating came as the president monday approved the formation of a presidential commission on the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

In the report released yesterday, NOIPolls said Buhari had the highest rating of 80 per cent in October 2015, and lowest rating of 42 per cent in April 2016.

“Interestingly, compared to one year ago, 44 per cent of Nigerians believe the country is currently moving in the right direction, while 37 per cent believe it’s moving in the wrong direction, leaving only 19 per cent who believe the country is neither moving in the right nor wrong direction,” NOIPolls said in its report released monday.

“Furthermore, in terms of specific indicators, Nigerians rated the president’s performance on corruption at 55 per cent, national security, 47 per cent as average, while he was rated very poorly on job creation, 14 per cent and handling of the economy, 21 per cent.’’

According to the poll, when asked of the most important issue Buhari’s administration should focus its attention on in the remaining three years of his tenure, Nigerians were said to have identified unemployment, 21 per cent; power, 17 per cent; and the economy, 16 per cent as the top priority areas.

The group said further analysis of the president’s approval rating based on geo-political zones indicated that the North-west and North-east geopolitical zones with 81 per cent each, had the highest proportion of respondents who approved of the president’s job performance, while the South-south and South-east zones with 35 per cent each accounted for the highest proportion of respondents who disapproved of the president’s performance.

The organisation added: “Interestingly, the average approval of 64 per cent cuts across all age groups, although it appears more male than female respondents, 67 per cent versus 60 per cent seemed to approve of his performance.
NOIPolls prides itself as the number one country specific polling services in West Africa, conducting periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, President Buhari has approved the formation of a presidential commission on the ease of doing business in the country.

A statement issued in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant to the the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, said his boss, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, announced this while presiding over the first quarterly consultation between the presidency and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) last Friday.
“Buhari has approved a high-powered commission to work on the issues around the ease of doing business in the country,” he added.

Akande said the commission would have a secretariat to be headed by a private sector professional who would be appointed to lead the secretariat of the commission.

He said MAN raised among many concerns, their worries about cases of multiple taxation, and in response, the vice president promised to followup on the matter, adding that “one of the key issues the presidential commission which I am heading would be looking at is the case of multiple taxation.”

He said the Ministry of Trade and Investment was also actively engaged with same issued.

At the end of the meeting, the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs, expressed concern about the acts of vandalism on oil and gas installations describing it as economic sabotage.

Jacobs said the association was happy about what the federal government was doing, adding: “We are concerned about what is happening in the Niger Delta area which is a kind of sabotaging the economic activities of the government, and therefore, we want to call on them to lay down their arms in the interest of the country.”

He called on the militants to join hands with government and move the country forward. The MAN president stated that diversification of the economy was the best way to go now given what is happening internationally.

Jacobs said the association “is keying into government policy in terms of diversification of the economy by doing their best to increase the capacity of production.