Atiku and Tinubu avoiding debate, but Kwankwaso insists everyone puts cards on the table
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate Rabiu Kwankwaso says Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu are avoiding public debate with fellow contestants because they have nothing to offer the populace and so have nothing to say.
Atiku and Tinubu both failed to attend the townhall organised in Abuja on 6 November by Arise Television, Centre for Development and Democracy (CDC), and other partners.
Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been avoiding live media scrutiny since he clinched the ticket in June. His running mate Kashim Shettima was also absent at the townhall.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been interviewed live on television – which is not the same thing as a public debate – but he sent his running mate and Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to the Arise TV townhall.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) attended the event along with Kwankwaso and Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).
Obi later announced he would no longer attend presidential debates if the candidates of other political parties choose to avoid rigorous public scrutiny.
“Of course, some of them are running away from debate because they have absolutely nothing to say,” Kwankwaso riposted at a meeting with the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) on Sunday.
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PDP will regret kicking out members
Kwankwaso dismissed as false, reports that he is collapsing his structure for other candidates, insisting he is for debate with all candidates so everyone would put their cards on the table, per reporting by Nairametrics.
He said the PDP will regret kicking out its members, including himself, Obi, and Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike.
“They are kicking out everybody; they still see it as 1999, not knowing that young men born today are now in charge of the polling booths.”
Kwankwaso insisted nobody at this stage will drop out of the race for another contestant.
“Before the closure of submitting names for the parties, politicians said that there was a need at that time for mergers, and submitted the names of President and Vice President, and now [that] we have submitted our names, to leave for another party, something is wrong
“We have answered this question over time, to go to the point, NNPP is all out to win the 2023 election.”