2019: Olawepo-Hashim leads Atiku, Buhari in social media engagements

THE weekly Facebook rating of presidential candidates has delivered a major upset as Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim of People’s Trust (PT) has overtaken Atiku Abubakar of People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

In the data released yesterday in Abuja, Olawepo-Hashim recorded Facebook engagements of 28,000+ and Abubakar had 24,000+.

President Muhammadu Buhari and candidate of the All Progressive Congress in the scheduled February 16, 2019 poll, recorded 16,000+ engagements.

Kingsley Moghalu, Fela Durotoye and the other presidential candidates were trailing far below with single digit ratings.

Last week data saw the PT’s candidate overtaking Buhari.

Abubakar was trailing the President two weeks ago, but had displaced the President in last week’s data with Olawepo-Hashim in hot pursuit.

In the last three weeks, the PT’s candidate had moved from third position to second and now to first based on engagement figures generated from the direct campaign handles of the three candidates.

Data analysts involved in the polling project said the data on each of the candidates’ were realistic because “Facebook represents the broad spectrum of voters who will vote in the February poll.”

According to them, “increasing engagements imply voters’ growing interest in the candidates while a decreasing result reflects voters’ disenchantment. A static return means a candidate at a crossroads in the campaign.”

The analysts said in their report that Olawepo-Hashim’s growing engagement rating was a measure of voters’ interest in him as a third force alternative.

“He is no longer part of the pack of third party candidates. He has moved ahead to emerge as a real alternative to both Buhari and Atiku. This is a game changer from data perspective,” according to the lead analyst for the project, Segun Seriki.