Press Release

KANO: Abba Kabir Yusuf of NNPP Has An Early Lead in a 2-Horse Race

07 November 2022

Ahead of the forthcoming 2023 governorship elections, a recent Statewide opinion poll commissioned by Anap Foundation and conducted by NOIPolls Limited was concluded in October 2022. The Poll revealed a substantially close race between Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and  Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC),with an 18-point gap between the pair and other candidates.

The results showed a significant lead for Abba Kabir Yusuf with 29% of voters proposing to vote for him if the governorship election were to be conducted today; and 21% proposing to vote for Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the APC who fell in second place. Mohammed Sadiq Wali of the PDP was a distant third with only 3% of voters proposing to vote for him.

Abba Kabir Yusuf’s 9%-point lead at this early stage is significant, but not sufficient to separate him completely from his main challenger as the top 3 candidates scored 29%, 21% and 3%.

Undecided voters and those who prefer not to reveal their preferred candidate add up to a whopping 30% and 11% respectively. The gender split of undecided voters shows that 35% of women are undecided versus 22% of male voters.

Poll Question: Suppose the governorship election is being conducted today, who are you likely to vote for?

 

Total (%)

Senatorial Districts

Poll

Ranking

Kano North

Kano Central

Kano South

Abba Kabir Yusuf (NNPP)

29%

28%

29%

26%

1sr

Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna (APC)

21%

21%

18%

25%

2nd

Mohammed Sadiq Wali (PDP)

3%

4%

3%

1%

3rd

Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada (ADP)

2%

2%

2%

3%

4th

Others

3%

4%

6%

3%

 

Undecided

30%

29%

29%

30%

 

None

1%

1%

1%

1%

 

Refused

11%

11%

12%

11%

 

Total

100

 

 

 

 

Source: NOIPolls – End October 2022

 

The percentage of registered voters is as follows in each of the districts - 88% in Kano South, 92% in Kano Central, and 93% in Kano North.

When asked if respondents were aware of the various candidates vying for Governorship, data gathered showed that 85% of the respondents were aware of Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the APC, 82% were aware of Abba Kabir Yusuf of the NNPP, 67% were aware of Mohammed Sadiq Wali of PDP and 62% were aware of  Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada of the ADP. All other candidates scored below 50% in terms of  name recognition.

Furthermore, the data summarizes top four reasons why voters are more inclined to vote in in the forthcoming elections, these include: - Continuity of Educational Policy (26%), Infrastructure (21%), Insecurity (16%) and Unemployment (11%) amongst others.

31% of the respondents would love to see their preferred governorship candidates participate in a televised interview and/or debate, with the interview/debates spanning across topics like their party manifestos, personality recognition and competence check amongst others.

It is worthy of note that 71% of those aged 18-25, 85% of those aged 26-35, 85% of those aged 36-45, 82% of those aged 46-60 and 82% of those aged 61+ responded they would definitely vote in the coming elections. The age groups that expressed the greatest willingness to vote were those between 26-35 years and 36-45 years.

The Poll shows that almost 8 in 10 registered voters are absolutely certain that they would be voting in the next governorship election. If they stay committed then we could witness a huge turnout in the March 2023 Governorship elections.

While this Governorship Poll result shows some significant trends, it is key to note that the battle ahead lies with the undecided/swing voters as they would ultimately decide which candidate emerges as Governor of Kano State in the 2023 governorship elections.

In summary, our October 2022 Polls are inconclusive in terms of establishing a clear winner as the undecided voters are enough to turn the tables. However, Anap Foundation has concluded that the trends are clear enough to establish the front runners and so our subsequent polls will concentrate on the 2  leading candidates only.

Signed:

Atedo N A Peterside CON,

President & Founder, Anap Foundation


NOIPolls Limited is No.1 for country-specific polling services in West Africa. It conducts periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria. More information is available at www.noi-polls.com.

Anap Foundation is a Non-Profit Organization committed to promoting good governance. Anap Foundation has been carrying out a series of Election polls since 2011 with the main objective of providing information on opinion research during election periods. Anap Foundation conducted similar polls for the Presidential elections in 2011, 2015, 2019 & 2022 and for the Ekiti State Governorship elections in 2014 & 2022 and also for the Lagos, Kaduna and Rivers State Governorship elections in 2015, as well as Sokoto, Kano, Rivers & Lagos in 2019. Our Governorship Polls have a sample size of 500. Sampling was done via stratified random sampling and interviews were conducted via mobile telephone calls in the preferred language of the respondent. The Margin of Error for the 2022 Governorship Polls is 6.57%. More information on Anap Foundation and our approved Polling Methodology is available at www.anapfoundation.com