Polls in Nigerian elections are notoriously unreliable but when it comes to measuring online reach, the numbers are entirely verifiable.
Figures from Brand24, a social media and analytics platform comparing the reach of #TheAtikuPlan to #NextLevelNigeria shows that Atiku’s policy launch reached 14 million people compared to that of the incumbent President who only reach 1 million, a mere 7% of that achieved by his key opponent.
These figures are all the more remarkable given that the APC invested huge millions of Naira in buying 3 hours of televised coverage on their launch on national television and the front pages of 8 newspapers, which alone cost over N80m using present day rates.
Compared to that, the Atiku campaign promoted its policy launch only using inside pages in four newspapers for a cost of N6m.
Buhari chose to do a traditional launch to VIPs and media. Atiku chose to launch his policy to the people first by speaking to the nation via Facebook and Twitter. It is clear to see which approach went down best with voters.
The Brand24 results measure the number of people who viewed the respective hashtags on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Figure 1 First summary is data from #TheAtikuPlan. Second summary is data from #NextLevelNigeria
How Nigerians will vote with their thumbs on February 16th in the only poll that truly matters remains to be seen. But when it comes to seeing how the Nigerian public are voting with the fingers at the start of the campaign, it is clear Atiku is winning the race by a massive margin.
Isima Odeh is a Social Media Expert
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