SaharaReporters Response to NOIPolls accusations against SR regarding its
\nmonthly polls on President Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n
After NOIPolls Is Called Out For Fraudulently Manipulating Opinion Polls
\nIn Nigeria, The Ethically Challenged Pollster Alleges Malice, Sponsorship
\nNOI Polls, whose claims of an active partnership in its current political
\npolls with Gallup USA were denied last week by the famous United States
\npollster, has accused SaharaReporters of malicious intent.<\/p>\n
NOI Polls, whose claims of an active partnership in its current political
\npolls with Gallup USA were denied last week by the famous United States
\npollster, has accused SaharaReporters of malicious intent.<\/p>\n
In a rebuttal issued at the weekend by NOIPolls Managing Director\/Chief
\nExecutive Officer, Ms. Oge Funlola Modie, the ethically challenged polling
\ncompany stated, \u201cIt is clear that the online website went on a fishing
\nexpedition designed to mislead stakeholders and the public with sponsored
\nlies and innuendos,\u201d.<\/p>\n
NOIPolls is owned by and named after Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister
\nof Finance\/Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and its fraudulent
\npolitical polls tend to favor President Goodluck Jonathan even in the face
\nof evidence of his gross unpopularity and incompetence.<\/p>\n
In the October and November polls, Mr. Jonathan curiously emerged with a
\n60% approval rating according to NOIPolls.<\/p>\n
Convinced that there is a serious conflict of interest between
\nOkonjo-Iweala\u2019s role in the government and NOI Polls, that the numbers
\nwere blatantly and unconscionably rigged and that a thorough professional
\njob would have revealed differently, SaharaReporters contacted Gallup, the
\nname of which is routinely and repeatedly used by NOIPolls as a partner.<\/p>\n
In a response by Johnathan Tozer, Gallup\u2019s Global Communications Director,
\nGallup said although NOIPolls had been its client in the past, it was \u201cnot
\npart of the data collection or methodology related to the President
\nGoodluck Jonathan approval rating poll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than face the issues, Ms Modie pleaded: \u201cNOIPolls has worked really
\nhard and still is, to champion the importance of opinion research across
\nthe region and the continent. We have put Nigeria on the global stage by
\nchanging the narratives about our beautiful country. At last the voices of
\nNigerians are being put on a platform and on display for the world to see.
\nWe are telling our story!\u201d<\/p>\n
In our judgement, NOIPolls chooses all the wrong pronouns that is
\nsynonymous with the arrogance of its founder. \u201cWe\u201d should represent the
\nNigerian people, not the views and greed of the presidency, which is the
\npropaganda in its false numbers. \u201cWe\u201d should not be telling our story, we
\nshould be telling the truth!
\n\u201cWe\u201d ought to start by admitting that NOIPolls has been appropriating the
\nname of Gallup to prop up the effort to advertise the views and hopes of
\nthe government about itself. Caught in its lies and pretensions about
\nGallup, NOI Polls said, \u201cDr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s excellent relationship
\nwith Mr Jim Clifton helped to get the partnership with Gallup off the
\nground. And we are very grateful with Mr Clifton and Gallup for their
\nsupport. This partnership will not be broken by this sponsored and
\nmalicious report by Saharareporters.\u201d<\/p>\n
We have no problem with the history of NOIPolls. Our issue is with the
\npresent. We did not claim a relationship between NOIPolls and Gallup:
\nNOIPolls did. We did not confirm that Gallup has no relationship with the
\nbogus NOIPolls: Gallup did. Gallup is run as an organization, which is why
\ntrying to cozy up to Mr. Clifton by affirming his relationship with
\nOkonjo-Iweala is no answer to the question of legitimate partnership.<\/p>\n
Still trying to justify the unjustifiable, NOIPolls said of our story,
\n\u201cThe report states that SaharaReporters asked Gallup if they were involved
\nin conducting the November\u2019s approval rating; of course they cannot be
\ninvolved, we are in a TECHNICAL PARTNERSHIP with Gallup, this means that
\nthey have taught us a methodology which we have adapted to the Nigerian
\ncontext. This partnership does not mean that NOIPolls will have Gallup do
\nall our polls. It means that we have perfected what we have been taught
\nand only review methodology when necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is elementary nonsense. If a student graduates from school, does his
\ncertificate permit him to go all over the world claiming that the teacher
\nis a partner in a current project? That is what NOIPolls has done:
\nunprofessionally and mischievously.<\/p>\n
NOIPolls further claims as follows: \u201cDr Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is also
\ntotally de-linked from the company and DOES NOT interfere with the
\noperations.\u201d
\nNothing could be further from the truth. To begin with, this assertion
\ncontradicts the earlier part of the statement which portrays Dr. Iweala\u2019s
\n\u201cunbreakable\u201d relationship with Gallup polls Managaing Director and\/CEO,
\nJim Clifton as the basis for its credibility, further, there is no
\ndisclaimer or disengagement of any kind that is available on the website.
\nWe take it for granted that if anything of that nature was ever
\nconsidered, it would have been published on the site and noted in About
\nUs\/Our Founder.<\/p>\n
That NOIPolls was registered earlier than Okonjo-Iweala\u2019s participation in
\ngovernment is not the issue; it is that it has become a convenient and
\nshameless and fraudulent tool for projecting the interest of the
\ngovernment of which she is a part, and of advancing President Jonathan\u2019s
\npolitical agenda. There is no other way of reading it.<\/p>\n
Everywhere else in the world, the dangerous conflict of interest that is
\nevident in this matter would have been clearly identified and dealt with.
\nIf Mr. Clifton took a job in Mr. Barack Obama\u2019s government, would Gallup
\nhave engaged in praise-singing political \u201cresearch\u201d schemes the headlines
\nof which are how popular and successful Obama is?<\/p>\n
Let us flip the coin. Did NOIPolls ever poll Nigerians about the handling
\nof the abduction of the Chibok high school girls? We recall no such
\neffort, perhaps because NOIPolls knows it lacks the wherewithal to reflect
\nthe true numbers on that key issue about President Jonathan.<\/p>\n
According to NOI Polls, \u201cThe monthly opinion surveys on the President\u2019s
\napproval ratings are \u201crigorous and credible\u201d and reflect both gains and
\nlosses in public perceptions for the President.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the proof NOIPolls offers for that laughable claim? It says: \u201cAs fair
\nminded and apolitical persons have observed, the approval ratings have not
\nbeen static: they reflect changes in public perception of the president\u2019s
\nwork. Not too long ago, it was 74%.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a lame defense of a government and a president whose performance
\nand productivity are on the flip side of its prodigious propaganda, and
\nthe NOIPolls is a tool of the frontline Minister regarded as one of the
\nmost powerful in that government.<\/p>\n
NOIPolls also defends itself by saying \u201cNOIPolls Technical Partnership
\nwith Gallup USA covers methodology and similar technical issues; it does
\nnot mean Gallup is involved in decisions on the monthly opinion polls.\u201d<\/p>\n
So why does NOIPolls not simply say that? Instead, it claims, ad
\nnauseaum: \u201cWe partner with Gallup USA to develop opinion research in
\nNigeria.\u201d
\nWe asked Gallup about its role in what is evidently a manipulation machine
\nbecause NOIPolls gave the impression Gallup was involved beyond teaching
\nNOI\u2014many years ago\u2014as NOI now admits, how to poll.<\/p>\n
One final word, about methodology.<\/p>\n
Of the November opinion poll, NOIPolls claimed a random sample size of
\n1,000 phone-owning adults it said represents Nigeria\u2019s six geopolitical
\nzones, expressing great confidence about its achievement.<\/p>\n
Here is its justification: \u201cMethodology as taught by Gallup shows that
\n1000 sample size is representative of the Nigerian Adult Population
\n(87.9m).<\/p>\n
Gallup uses same sample size for a population of 350 million Americans.
\nOur methodology is scientifically proven and if Sahara Reporter had done
\nan in-depth research on global polling methodology standards, they will
\nrealize this.\u201d
\nThis, remember, comes from the same NOIPolls which claims to object to
\n\u201ccolonial mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the United States, polling by telephone is routine and reliable.
\nPeople have telephones, and they effortlessly charge and use them.
\nFurthermore, they don\u2019t have large swathes of the country that President
\nObama is scared to go to and eat in a restaurant.<\/p>\n
That was why we asked whether the Gallup-inspired sample size included the
\nareas in Nigeria\u2019s northeast under the control of a murderous islamic
\nmilitant group, Boko Haram, and other areas that President Jonathan is not
\nin charge of, or where people lack electrical power to charge their phones
\nor even get phone reception.<\/p>\n
All of this is even more interesting because Ms. Modie took some<\/p>\n
gratuitous time to brag about the size of the NOIpolls personnel armory.
\n\u201cNOIPolls is a going concern with 50 HQ staff members, a workforce of 40+
\ninterns and 300 field operatives. That figure moved up from 5 staff in
\nJanuary 2012 to now (sic) clocking almost 400 persons in jobs that have
\nbeen created over a 2 year period.\u201d
\nWe appreciate the creation of jobs for Nigerians, but such a vast outfit
\nin less than two years just to make 1000 phone calls per month from a
\ncomputer terminal? And they still can\u2019t get an opinion poll about a
\nbumbling president right?<\/p>\n
NOIPolls makes a lot of insinuations about SaharaReporters. That is
\nunderstandable. The simple answer is that we object to policies and
\npractices emanating from Abuja because we are knowledgeable about their
\ncolor and substance.<\/p>\n
The color of NOIPolls, for instance, is off, and its substance stinks.
\nThe difference with us is not that we are \u201csponsored,\u201d and cannot be
\nsponsored. If anyone is sponsored it would be clear like daylight that it
\nis polling company whose founder propels the engine of a corrupt
\ngovernment and its boards chairman makes no bone about being a government
\ncontractor.<\/p>\n
NOI, the pollster, and NOI, the Minister, both also know that unlike those
\nwho accept sponsorship, we are not afraid to pronounce the name of the
\ncolor that we see.<\/p>\n
And when it stinks, we pronounce that, too: lo
\n—
\nPublisher,
\nSaharaReporters.com, New York
\nTel: 1.646.704 5433
\nwww.saharareporters.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SaharaReporters Response to NOIPolls accusations against SR regarding its monthly polls on President Goodluck Jonathan. After NOIPolls Is Called Out For Fraudulently Manipulating Opinion Polls In Nigeria, The Ethically Challenged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n