A poll by West Africa’s number one polling services, NOI Polls, said 78% of Nigerians passed the federal government’s lockdown strategy as an appropriate method of fighting the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this during Thursday’s edition of the media briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Abuja.
The Minister, who was reacting to allegations the PTF and National Orientation Agency (NOA), had failed to adequately enlighten Nigerians on the COVID-19 pandemic, also said the polls put the level of awareness of the outbreak among Nigerians at 99%.
While describing the allegation as ‘fake news’, Mohammed said the authenticity of the polls was further backed by the fact that it obtained from the Communications Office of the British Prime Minister.
“The allegation that the Ministry of Information or the PTF, particularly the National Orientation Agency (NOA) is not doing enough to sensitise and enlighten Nigerians about COVID-19, is fake news and it’s fake news and I have the independent polls conducted by the NOIP, which is the most credible company in the whole of West Africa for this kind of poll, which was also sent to us by the UK Prime Minister’s Communication Office, which is partnering with us, and the result is this:
“It says 99% of Nigerians say they are aware of COVID-19. 6% of Nigerians say it is not real and this 6% is broken down to northwest, 4%; Northeast, 8%; north central, 5%; Southwest, 3%, southeast, 10% and; south-south 12%.
“The poll also said 28% of Nigerians said they are imuned to COVID-19 and the reasons they gave are as follows: 42% of them said ‘I believe in God’s. 35% of them said ‘I follow preventive measures’. 11% of them said ‘I’m a black person’. 5% of them said ‘hot weather will not allow it to infect me’, while 4% of them said ‘I eat good food’.
“The poll also went down to ask Nigerians ‘do you see the FG’s decision to lockdown FCT, Lagos Ogun as corrects?’. 18% said ‘it’s too extreme’, 78% said ‘It’s appropriate’, while 5% said ‘not sufficient’.
“If you want more information, I will give you, but I tell you this is from NOI Polls, so all these allegations that there’s not enough public enlightenment is fake news,” he said.

By Bolaji Ogundele