The Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG), has hinted plans to streamline its presidential debates, saying only four presidential candidates would be considered for the 2023 presidential debate.
Consequently, the group said the four candidates will be decided through opinion polls, which according to the group is already ongoing.
The Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG), Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) and Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and other partners from civil society organisations are putting the 2023 debate together.
Briefing the media ahead of the planned 2023 presidential debate, the executive secretary, NEDG Mr. Eddie Emessiri said the debate would only accommodate four political parties that are deemed to be serious by all parameters.
He also said that the debate would have four sessions and also four thematic areas. Of the four sessions, three would be for the presidential candidates and one will be for the Vice Presidential candidates.
According to him, the first session that will be held in Abuja on 15 November will be an Economic debate.
“The focus would be on the economy.
The second leg of the debate slated for 15 December, will hold in Port Harcourt and will be for the vice presidential candidates.
“The third leg will hold in Lagos on 19 January 2023 and the focus would be on foreign policy, education and security.
The fourth leg, Emessiri said will hold in Kano in February 2023.
Explaining the reason for streamlining the number of presidential candidates, Emessiri said it is impossible to get the best from the debate with 18 presidential candidates.
He said, “So NEDG has selection criteria and a framework that we use to shortlist some candidates that will be invited.
“Following the selection criteria that we’re employing, we’re also carrying out a poll with the general public in order to validate the selection criteria and the names of the people who will be appearing in the debates because it needs to be by two largely popular consent.
“The results of that will be out shortly and once they are we’ll be releasing them to the general public.”
He stressed that because of the large number of presidential candidates, the group had to settle for criteria and methodology for the selection process.
He stressed that there are a few political parties who are vying for the office of president, but because the group does not have much time, adding that it is a broadcast event, which is just two hours.
He said, “You know, when you repeat, if you want to do a broadcast for the whole debate, bring in 18 people, you will, people will get fed up and they won’t want to listen. So what we tend to do is to select the best of the candidates from the polls.
“The best four candidates from the polls, and these and if you look at the two-hour space, it simply means that each person will have a minimum of five questions for each debate. If you take more than that, it simply means you’re asking two questions. And that will not be enough for you to have an assessment of the capacity or the competence of the person, but they would be able to answer four to five questions.”
