Why some Nigerians won't tell us how they will vote

The views expressed in this article are those of this guest author and do not reflect the views of Stears.

As if polling Nigerians was not fiendishly difficult enough, Stears has decided to branch out into psephology, the art (or sorcery) of using data and analysis to make predictions on election outcomes.

Every democracy worth its salt has some kind of polling tradition that attempts to gauge the mood of voters in the run-up to elections. This exercise is useful because it engages with potential voters on a broader range of questions than the often binary choice presented on a ballot paper.

The article explaining the poll's methodology is available to read for free on the Stears website, and I’ll encourage you to do so. But, for me, the most interesting part of the poll is how—to paraphrase a once popular pop song—Nigerians say it best when they say nothing