Fakoyejo OlalekanThe Presidential inauguration of Bola Tinubu increased the number of viewers recorded by local television stations on Monday.
According to a Prime Business Africa survey, using YouTube channels of Arise TV, Channels TV, AIT, LTV, NTA, Silverbird, News Central, TVC, an average of 64,578 eyeballs followed the event live via Youtube.
Stats showed that the viewership recorded by the local stations increased as Tinubu took his oath of office, while the figure dropped during his speech.
This publication gathered that in the earlier part of the inauguration, a total of 36,681 people were watching the event via the YouTube channels of these stations.
The number increased significantly by 84,176 or 229.4%, as about 120,857 people watched Tinubu take his oath of office.
However, this number dropped by 84,659 during Tinubu’s inauguration speech, Prime Business Africa gathered while monitoring the YouTube stations.
Breakdown of how Nigerians watched Tinubu’s inauguration
Pre-oath and speech viewership
Before Tinubu took the stage to take his oath, TVC led with the highest number of viewers, accounting for 14,000; Channels TV recorded 11,000; Arise TV contributed 10,000; LTV got 1,700, NTA 1,100; AIT 581; Silverbird recorded just 2.
Note that LTV and News Central were not added as the stations didn’t broadcast the event at the time Ripples Nigeria monitored at the beginning of the inauguration.
Number of people that watched Tinubu take oath
Out of the 120,857 people that watched Tinubu take his oath, 78,000 did via Channels TV; Arise TV accounted for 19,000; TVC contributed 18,000; NTA recorded 2,500; AIT got 1,400 eyeballs; LTV accounted for 1,700; News Central 255; Silverbird 2.
Number of people that watched Tinubu’s speech
As earlier stated, the number of people that watched the inauguration speech dropped significantly to 36,198, with Arise TV accounting for 15,000; Channels TV 10,000; TVC recorded 8,100; NTA contributed 1,600; AIT 1,200; News Central 213; LTV recorded 83 eyeballs and Silverbird 2.
Why the surge and decline in views?
In a chat with communications expert and Team Lead/Strategist at Kontact Media, Segun Akinleye, Prime Business Africa was told that the surge in viewership during Tinubu’s oath could be linked to doubt over the inauguration holding.
Recall that a trending prophesy video had stated that Tinubu would be arrested during his inauguration, which would abruptly end the ceremony.
“The key moment of the inauguration was when he took the oath of office, so that is not really surprising. Some Nigerians were still hopeful that the inauguration wasn’t going to happen based on the assumption that the election was flawed and a ‘miracle’ could suddenly happen. Lastly, more people joined while the inauguration was ongoing,” Akinleye said.
The Chief Story Teller for a communications firm, Storywoxs54, Bemigho Awala, had a different insight as to why the viewership increased during Tinubu’s oath-taking.
Awala said the oath-taking is one of the key moments in the inauguration ceremony, so it’s understandable that more people tuned in at the time, “I think there are certain things that we need to remember that might have impacted this whole question of viewership before the oath, during the oath, as well as the inauguration speech.
“To your very first question about why we saw an increase in the number of people that watched Tinubu’s oath-taking. I think (we) should remember that the oath-taking can be regarded as one of the key moments in that whole ceremony, also because it confers upon the president some legitimacy to take over the reins of government,” he said.
The Storywoxs54 chief also stated that the social media drive at the time spurred interest, “So if you followed on social media, after Kashim (Vice President) took his oath, the story around social media was VP to Buhari, so I suspect that at the point when it was the turn for Tinubu to take his oath, a lot of tease, followers would probably have sent messages around that “Tinubu is about to take his oath”, “he’s about to become president,” so I suspect strongly that the bump in viewership could be attributed to that.
“The fact that a lot of his supporters wanted to see him take the oath and officially become the commander in chief. To my mind, I think that is why we saw that bump in viewership, in terms of the oath-taking. It is literally the crescendo, the highest point of that whole ceremony at that time.
“So it’s only understandable, and I think of natural consequence that you would see a lot more people tune in.”
Regarding the drop in viewership during the inauguration speech, Akinleye said Tinubu’s speech was long and uninspiring, so it could have turned off people’s interest in watching further.
He also hinted at Tinubu not being the popular candidate. Recall that Tinubu contested for the presidential position against Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, with both oppositions in court, challenging the president’s victory.
“Have you analysed his speech? The speech was long and uninspiring. But the key message was passed and that was the announcement about the fuel subsidy removal.
“Overall, there is a question mark on his victory at the polls and he’s not the most popular candidate, which might have resulted in the overall number of views,” Kontact Media’s Akinleye said.
Also, Awala said he thinks that not a lot of people wanted to hear what Tinubu had to say, which is one of the reasons the viewership dropped.
Although he stated that the ceremony between the oath-taking and Tinubu’s speech could have quelled the interest of viewers, as not many people find the military parade intriguing.
He said the interlude between the point when Tinubu took the oath and the point when he gave the inauguration speech, the interlude was marked by parade and review, “So I think at that point, enthusiasm of viewers would have dwindled, people would not want to watch the president reviewing parade and stand, you know, all of those military match past. For a lot of people, I’m sure it was boring stuff,” Awala told this publication.
“In fact, even the president was tired, and he was reported to have said “as le ma lo ba yi”, meaning can we begin to go, you know it could be sort of like boring,” Awala jokingly said, adding, “therefore, it’s no brainer that you begin to experience a drop in viewership between the point after he took the oath and when he began his inauguration speech.”
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