Buhari, Ribadu, Shekarau opt out of debate with Jonathan

Three presidential candidates yesterday opted out of a fresh debate with President Goodluck Jonathan over his absence at last Friday’s debate organised by a private television station NN24.

They are: Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC); Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

They said the March 29 debate, being organised by the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG), comprising Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), among others, might turn out as a charade of a kokolete debate.

Addressing reporters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, Shekarau said: “All of us have agreed not to attend. 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?” 

Also in a statement in Abuja, the candidates alleged that with government agencies behind the debate, the organisers may not resist giving questions in advance.

The statement was signed by the Deputy Director, Communications, Shekarau for Nigeria, Sule Yau Sule; the spokesman for Gen Buhari, Yinka Odumakin; and the Director, Media and Communications, Ribadu Presidential Campaign Team, Ibrahim Modibbo.

The statement said: “We the spokespersons of the presidential candidates of ANPP, CPC and ACN wish to clear the air on the matter of the presidential debate organised by NN24 so that our teeming supporters and Nigerians in general will understand and appreciate our position.

“We had held series of clear-the-air meetings, under the auspices of the organisers, at which logistical and other arrangements for the debate were exhaustively discussed.

“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 8 and 15 – 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 Jonathan, suggested the March 18 date on 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.

“For emphasis, we had to adjust our respective campaign time tables at great logistics costs to us as our sacrifices for the growth of the culture of debate as an essential ingredient of the open society.

“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 contest, as it were.

“But there is a limit to which we can subject ourselves to this sheer impunity of the ruling party, which it has 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…”