Buhari, Ribadu, Shekarau Pull Out of TV Debate

Posted by admin National Politics Friday, March 25th, 2011

The top four presidential candidates will not debate before the election after all. Major General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Thursday pulled out of the scheduled March 28-29 debate.

This, according to them, is in protest against President Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for failing to take part in last week’s debate organised by NN24 TV.

The debate scheduled for next Tuesday is organised by the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) in conjunction with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) – an association of private and government-owned television stations including Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), African Independent Television (AIT), Channels, Silverbird and Murhi TV.

In a joint statement signed by Sule Ya’u Sule (for Shekarau), Yinka Odumakin (Buhari) and Ibrahim Modibbo (Ribadu), they said they would not honour any debate in which Jonathan would take part because he “arrogantly shunned” the earlier one which they all agreed to participate.

The statement said Jonathan’s refusal to take part in the NN24 debate was akin to taking them for a ride, adding that despite the fact that they made huge sacrifices by adjusting their tight schedules in order to attend the event, the PDP candidate did not honour the invitation even when his representative was part and parcel of the entire preparations.

They said: “The representative of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Dr. Doyin Okupe, was in attendance and actively participated in all deliberations.

“It was at Dr. Okupe’s instance that the two dates earlier proffered by the organisers; March 8th and 15th as contained in the memorandum of understanding signed by the three candidates were rejected because according to him, those dates were not convenient for his candidate. Dr. Okupe, on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan, suggested the March 18th date in which the debate was successfully held.

“All of us accepted this date not because it was convenient for our principals, but as our sacrifice to afford Nigerian voters an opportunity to assess and judge the candidates’ programmes as well as personality under the spotlight.”

They said they had to adjust their respective campaign timetables at great logistics costs as our sacrifices for the growth of the culture of debate as an essential ingredient of the open society”.

They said: “We indeed bent backwards for the office of the President even when we are fully aware that the occupant is no more than a co-contestant in the context as it were.

“But there is a limit to which we can subject ourselves to this sheer impunity of the ruling party which they have flunked on our faces as a people in the last 12 years. The PDP has a record of shunning every Presidential debate since 1999.

“We are highly suspicious of the celebrated romance with the BON debate by the President Jonathan’s camp which shunned the NN24 debate without an apology. We can only hazard that since most of the agencies organising the BON debate are government parastatals, the organisers may not be in a position to resist the request for advance questions being given to the debates in which the NN24 agreed with us because they were independent. This does not mean that the men and women running these agencies lack integrity but the awe some power of the presidency may be too much for them.

“Our principals being men of dignity with high regard for the people of Nigeria will not be part of such orchestrated charade of a D’Banj’s ‘kokolete’ debate.”

They said the behaviour of the president was egotistical, condescending and unbecoming of a man seeking a mandate to govern Nigeria because “leadership entails humility and respect for others”.

They said a situation where the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation deliberately set out to humiliate other presidential candidates by reneging on an agreement it proposed “is unacceptable to us and the millions of our supporters”.

The statement added: “Consequently, we state without ambiguity that our principals will not honour any debate session with President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 elections as he has arrogantly shunned the credible debate for which we made ourselves available. Future presidents of Nigeria will have to be more careful in dealing with the feelings of others.”

Speaking to journalists yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Shekarau said the other candidates decided to abstain from the debate because it lacked credibility.

“We have had the opportunity to address Nigerians through the debate organised by more credible groups, why should we attend a debate organised by one presidential candidate?” he asked.

The ANPP flag bearer called on Nigerians to look out for candidates who had made significant contribution to the development of the country and whose past could be placed on the scale.

“As I concluded the presidential debate organised by the media outfit Network News 24 in Abuja, I have continued to challenge Nigerians to take a critical look at all the presidential candidates and vote for the ones that could itemise and evaluate their blueprint on how they intend to offer the right leadership to this country. My call to Nigerians is that they should look out for candidates, whose past can be judged; whose past can be placed on the scale, and see what did they contribute, and what background they are coming from; what can they contribute to the development of the people,” he said.

Meanwhile, the organisers of the debate have set out the rules ahead of the event.
NEDG, whose invitation President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted, said it would be a non-audience participation debate.
It will kick off with vice-presidential debate on Monday, March 28 and hold at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

Addressing a press conference, the Chairman of the NEDG, Taiwo Alimi, who was also a Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), directed members of the audience who wish to participate to send in their questions to a dedicated email: info@nedgonline.org.
According to him, there shall be no applauding of candidates during the debates by the audience.

He said: “All Nigerians are requested and indeed invited to draw up questions that our panel will be raising with the presidential and vice-presidential candidates during the debate. The questions should be concise, clear and direct. Questions are welcome on all areas of the economy and our national life. You are kindly requested to forward such questions to our email: info@nedgonline.org.”

According to the chairman of the NEDG, “invitations have been extended to guests that will constitute the non-participatory audience at the venue of the debates. The audience is not allowed to interrupt, applaud or say anything in the course of the debate as in 2003 and 2007.”

He said that only eight political parties were invited out of the 19 that are fielding presidential candidates at the April presidential election.
This, he said, is in line with the criterion of selecting from parties that are fielding candidates in at least the House of Representatives poll in the general election.

The invited parties are: PDP, ACN, ANPP, CPC, Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), Social Democatic Mega Party (SDMP), National Transformation Party (NTP), United National Party for Development (UNPD).
Alimi said the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Labour Party (LP)â€ˆwere not invited because they were not fielding any presidential candidate in the poll.

Alimi also announced the pairing of the presidential candidates and their running mates for the debate with the vice-presidential candidates of MPPP, Rasheed Shitta Bey, squaring up with SDMP’s running mate, Lawal Kasimu Funtua; and UNPD’s Galadima Saamri and the NTP’s Bilikisu Ismo Magogo for the first session taking place at 4-6 pm on Monday.

The second session of the vice-presidential debate will take place 7-9 pm between Tajudeen Afolabi Adeola of the ACN and John Oyegun of ANPP; and later Tunde Bakare of CPC and Namadi Sambo of the PDP at the same venue.

On Tuesday, the presidential debate will be between Prof. Patrick Utomi of the SDMP, Chief (Mrs.) Ebiti Onoyom Ndok of the UNPD, John Dara of the NTP and Hamisu Santuraki of the MPPP between the hours of 7-9 pm.

On Wednesday, the presidential debate shall be between President Jonathan of the PDP, Buhari of the CPC, Ribadu of ACN and Shekarau of the ANPP between 7-9 pm.
According to Alimi, the debates would be aired live by all television stations in the country.

-Punch

wp_posts

Short URL: https://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=5593

Posted by admin on Mar 25 2011. Filed under National Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry