SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF THE OSUN STATE ELECTION: Do public opinions influence electoral outcomes in Nigeria?

The 2022 Osun State (one of the South Western States in Nigeria) gubernatorial election was one of the most sought-after elections in Nigeria in recent times. With both candidates, Gboyega Oyetola (APC), and Adeleke Ademola (PDP), going head-to-head, the stakes couldn’t have been any higher. 

The conclusion of the election marked the end of the All Progressive Congress (APC) twelve-year administration in the State, ushering in Adeleke Ademola Jackson Nurudeen of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner. Interestingly this will be the second time the PDP will govern the state since the beginning of the fourth republic.

Before the announcement of the voting outcome on the 17th of July, Mustard Insights, in collaboration with 10Alytics (A leading data and strategy firm) assessed over 40,000 tweets spread across four weeks. The report details sentiment analysis of Twitter users on the elections, delineating statistics of tweet activities around the period and extracting findings from the prevailing conversations.

44,261 tweets were extracted, with the highest amounts of tweets being recorded on the weekend of the election. Of the 44,261 tweets, 32,379 of the tweets had positive perceptions of the Osun State Governorship electioneering process, while 6,249 had not as inspiring things to say. A qualitative assessment of the tweets showed that the winning candidate was regarded as the people’s choice and that the elections were perceived to be free, fair, and peaceful, amongst other findings.

For a detailed insight and analytics of the report, CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT.