By Ishaya Ibrahim
There were more queries on the internet about Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state than any of his colleagues in the last 12 months, according to analytics from Google Trends, a tool used in measuring search volumes relative to other searches.
Ganduje was closely followed by governors Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
Until October 2018, not many people searched Ganduje on Google.
The bribe video then had not leaked. But on October 14 when the video of him stuffing dollar notes in his flowing gown emerged, Ganduje immediately became an internet celebrity. He had since then remained on the top among the most searched governors on the internet.
According to the analytics from Google Trends, the queries used to search Ganduje are; Ganduje bribe, Ganduje bribe video, Ganduje bribery video, Ganduje collecting bribe and Baban Abba Ganduje.
The next most searched governor is el-Rufai who appears to have only been displaced from the first spot because of Ganduje’s bribery video; otherwise, he would have remained on the top position owing to his frequent controversial comments.
He had suggested that foreign election monitors who interfered in Nigeria’s 2019 general election would go back to their country in body bags.
He had claimed to pay off killer herdsmen to stop attacking Southern Kaduna communities.
He chose a fellow Muslim as his deputy in a state that has a tradition of pairing Muslim and Christian for the state’s top job.
But it was his rumoured death and not his comments or actions that increased his search volume on the internet. The two major queries about el-Rufai were; el-Rufai accident, el-Rufai death.
Makinde took the third spot among the most searched governors in the last twelve months.
The volume of his search increased when he publicly declared his assets whose total worth was about N48 billion.
The breakdown of the assets shows that his cash at hand and in the bank is worth N234 million as of May 28, 2019.
His property and household items are worth N2.6 billion, while the current value of his companies stands at N48 billion.
This is in addition to his bonds (Eurobond) worth $3,793,500 as well as shares, debentures and other securities valued at N120, 500,000.
Shortly after the release of the assets, the search items about Makinde were his profile and net worth.
