Lockdown or not: Lagos conducts social media poll, see results

The Lagos State Government is conducting an opinion poll on twitter to determine whether Lagosians want an extension to the lockdown or not.

Considering the level of compliance with government's directives on limiting the spread of Covid-19 in a Lagos State, should the State Government impose another lockdown or not? @jidesanwoolu @JokeSanwoolu @drobafemihamzat @ProfAkinAbayomi @LSMOH @gboyegaakosile @Mr_JAGss

— The Lagos State Govt (@followlasg) May 12, 2020

This move is being conducted via its twitter handle and on Wednesday and had garnered over 64,000 votes. Lagos State has a population of over 15 million.

Last week, Lagos State threatened to go back to total lockdown if there is no improvement in adherence to the public health guidelines.

The poll was also featured on the LASG Facebook Page but did not gather as much view as it has on Twitter. It is not clear if the state plans to use the data for decisions on whether to revert the state to a lockdown or not. To view the ongoing poll results (which has a day left before it closes) users will have to take a vote. With the present results suggest most voters prefer a lockdown to help contain the virus spread. With one day left about 49.8% to prefer another lockdown.

Twitter polls are not entirely scientific and do not provide further insights into reasons for voter patterns. It also does not disclose the sex, age, and demographics of the voters. Most of the voters need not reside in Lagos. Nairametrics, however, understand details of the result can be provided to Lagos State from Twitter helping it better understand voter patterns.

Many Nigerians take to social media daily to track coronavirus, Covid-19 updates and also share their views and opinions.

Data obtained from Statcounter, says Facebook and Twitter records 47% and 30% usage by Nigerians and are by far Nigeria’s preferred social media platforms. Twitter has however recorded a surge in recent weeks, partly channelled by the Covid-19 pandemic and the need for faced paced commentary.

Lagos may go back to total Lockdown

Lagos State Government threatened to revert to total lockdown if there is no improvement in adherence to the public health precautions.

The state government figured out that in the first week of the easing of the lockdown, there had been a repetitive and obvious disobedience to the earlier announced health guidelines, a move that could frustrate the government’s efforts to curtail the virus.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu tweeted: “As a government elected to uphold the security of its citizens, which includes health security, we will not hesitate to review the terms of #EasingTheLockdown if we do not see an improvement in the adherence to our public health guidelines over the next couple of days.”