T emerged in Abuja on Thursday that the campaign organisation of President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may shun the planned presidential debate as a result of the failure of opposition parties to join the presidential campaign train.

Sources told the Nigerian Tribune that the president’s men believed that opposition leaders were not serious about campaigning for votes in the April polls, but were seeking avenues to discredit the process.
It was disclosed that the president’s team queried what was termed the penchant for opposition parties to take the people for granted by refusing to mount the podium and campaign in the states.

One of those who spoke against the debate at a review meeting was said to have asked the PDP to be wary of falling into the opposition’s trap by raising the profile of the television debate as if the statewide tours were irrelevant.

For instance, some of those who argued against the presidential debate for the forthcoming election said that while the PDP had been deploying its resources to campaign in the six geopolitical zones and 36 states, the other political parties were sleeping, apparently saving their money for litigation after the election.

“The essence of political campaigns  should not be lost on all of us and the ploy by some parties to do minimal campaign while waiting for what they believe would be technical knockouts should not be encouraged. Rather than entrench democracy, such attitudes would retard democratic growth,” a source said.

It was gathered that the president had been told clearly that he should shun any debate with the opposition parties, if their leaders refuse to tour the states and campaign in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

“If the opposition [groups] are merely waiting for slips by the PDP and seeking to exploit the loopholes in the system, then the PDP should discountenance them and continue with its campaigns, rather than break its campaign to appear before the television audience,” a source said.

The source said that while the PDP had been on the campaign train for two weeks, the opposition basically went to sleep, adding that, so far, only the PDP was sure of touring the 36 states before the end of the time allotted for campaigns.

“We don’t see any reason the president would sit down on the same platform with those who cannot reach out to the people in an issues-based campaign, those who only want to hide in one corner looking for whatever they called technical victory. Campaigns have to be first taken to the people,” another source monitoring the process said.

 -Tribune