By Ishaya Ibrahim
The name of Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje, elicits more interest among those searching the internet using Google than his opponent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer, data from Google Trends has revealed.
Google Trends is a Google tool that provides information on what people are currently interested in, and curious about on the internet. Agbaje and Sanwo-Olu are the two leading contestants for the number one job of Lagos state.
TheNiche data analysis unit observed that from September 1 to October 6, 2018, searches for Agbaje and Sanwo-Olu started spiking. Within the period, Sanwo-Olu was the main topic of interest among many people searching the internet, with his search value hitting 100 per cent.
Agbaje’s was 54 per cent. However, interest in Sanwo-Olu declined sharply on October 7, 2018, down to 5 per cent. But Agbaje was still being talked about by 32 per cent on that day.
As at the time of filing this report, January 11, the search query for Sanwo-Olu is nil, while Agbaje’s is 55 per cent. On average, Google trends rate Agbaje 8 on its popularity scale. Sanwo-Olu got 4.
For both candidates, people were mainly asking about their biography and profile. Comparing the search queries of both candidates, Agbaje dominates in Lagos with 70 per cent of the queries are on him.
Sanwo-Olu trailed by 30 per cent. The data also reveals that Lagosians are not the only people interested in these two candidates. In the Federal Capital Territory, 53 per cent of the search query is on Agbaje, while Sanwo-Olu has 47.
In Edo, the entire search query is on Agbaje. He got 100 per cent while his opponent has none. It is, however, unclear why Edo people are interested in the PDP’s governorship candidate and not interested in knowing anything about his opponent.