Most Lagosians on Twitter will like the State Government to lockdown the state for a second time, following the growing number of confirmed Covid-19 cases.
This is based on the voting trend in an opinion poll lunched by the Lagos State Government on its Twitter handle, which is supposed to end today.
Seventy-two thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven Twitter users have voted in poll as at 3:30 yesterday, and forty-nine point five percent want the lockdown to return.
Thirty-nine point eight percent of the voters do not want the lockdown to be restored, while ten point seven percent are neutral.
EXPERT OPINION
However; a data analyst, BABAJIDE OGUNSANWO, says an online poll alone should not be used to decide whether to restore the lockdown in Lagos State. But going by the voting pattern; OGUNSANWO said: “49 percent want the lockdown; it means that more than half of those who took the poll do not want the lockdown.”
On the overall; OGUNSANWO said Twitter poll is a good start by the Lagos State to understand the feeling of the residents, but it does not represent the majority of the state population.
“Let’s not forget that Twitter poll is not good sample for taking such decision, because Twitter poll represents the minority. Significant majority of those in Lagos today, are not just on Twitter, but they do not have smart phone. Among those on Twitter, only a minority use Twitter actively” he said.
OGUNSANWO maintained that online polls do not give a proper demographic representative of the population.
“We don’t know if majority of the people doing the twitter poll are male or female; are they young or are they old; do they have any political leaning or they do not; are they self-employed or are they working for a biz? These are the questions that the twitter poll does not answer.”
BABAJIDE OGUNSANWO suggested that the Lagos State government should also use other means to seek the opinions of Lagos residents on the Covid-19 lockdown.
“So, a twitter poll or online poll is not the global standard or the international standard. Most responsible governments do a random sample of a minimum of a thousand people, and they do that either by a random interviews or randomly calling on phone. In this instance, we have a sample bias, because the sample is only selected among those that live in Lagos and use twitter actively…
Although OGUNSANWO said it is “a good attempt from the Lagos State Government. It’s an attempt to show that they want to listen and they want to feel the pulse of what the online community would recommend.” But said “It is important for any responsible government, like the Lagos State Government to not take a decision on if the lockdown should continue on the basis of an online poll. I would really be surprised if the lag state government takes a decision based on the online poll”
GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS
Meanwhile; the Lagos State government has said the decision on whether to reinstate the Coronavirus lockdown will not be based only on the result of the online opinion poll.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Strategy, OLUSINA THORPE, said the opinion poll is running on the state government’s three social media platforms on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
THORPE said that the initiative was part of an inclusive strategy of the administration led by Governor BABAJIDE SANWO-OLU to enable the masses participate in governance.
