Atiku Absent As Obi, Kwankwaso, Abiola Face Nigerians At Arise News Debate

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar was absent at the first edition of the presidential town hall’ series organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development and Arise. He was out of the country.

The programme was designed for presidential candidates to speak on their plans for Nigerians with regards to security and the economy.

There was however a mild drama at the ‘presidential town hall’ organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development and Arise as angry supporters of the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, almost disrupted the programme in protest over allowing the vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, to participate at the gathering.

The disagreement led to a rowdy session just before the meeting began.

The Obi supporters protested the representation of other presidential candidates by their running mates, insisting that the townhall would not hold in the absence of some presidential candidates.

Despite attempts to bring the situation under control, the venue of the meeting was turned into a theatre of protests and chants by supporters of Obi, who said  “No VP, only presidential candidates debate; we will not accept. it is a presidential candidates’ debate; we will not tolerate that. We don’t want second fiddle.”

Arise TV presenter, Dr Reuben Abati, pleaded with the angry crowd of supporters to allow the meeting proceed, saying it was a townhall meeting and not a presidential debate.

The townhall meeting which focused on Security and Economy with a panel of interviewers, a participatory audience of invited guests, is the first in the series of engagements with candidates in the countdown to the 2023 Presidential Election.

The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not attend.

Explaining why Tinibu was absent, the director, Public Affairs and spokespersons, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, said, “Firstly, many radio and TV networks in Nigeria have indicated interests to host such debates and out of deference to other TV and radio stations, our candidate will not be making selective appearances in some networks, whilst ignoring others. As President of Nigeria, by the Special Grace of God, he intends to treat all persons and businesses fairly and equally.

“Secondly, the busy and hectic campaign schedules of Asiwaju Tinubu will not permit him to honour all such invitations by different radio and TV networks, hence our decision for him not to start with one TV station and later ignore others.”

On his part, the main opposition party’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, flew into the country yesterday night from the United States of America where he  visited as part of his campaign activities.

According to the programme, four candidates were listed to participate in this round of the meeting namely Atiku of PDP, Obi of Labour Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP and Kola Abiola of PRP.

Atiku was represented by his running mate, Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, but this was resisted by Obi supporters who protested against allowing Okowa participate.

But Atiku’s supporters at the venue countered the claims made by Obi supporters on grounds that it was a town hall meeting and not a debate and that the presidential ticket is one.

Also, Okowa later explained that the organisers permitted him to represent the presidential candidate.

The candidates were selected based on the performance of their parties in an online survey by the organisers during which all the 18 political parties were listed in alphabetical order.

“The result of this survey informed our decision to invite the highest four scoring parties – LP, APC, PDP and NNPP to the town hall,” the director of the CDD, Idayat Hassan, said in a statement.

However, the candidates have varied insights into their solutions to the problems of insecurity and economy in Nigeria. They also have areas of convergence on security and the economy.

While they questioned the need for recruitment of more security personnel, they however had divergent views on the how to ensure that they reduce the over six million arms in the hands of bandits.

Okowa, representing Atiku, said, “We need to emphasize coordinated intelligence gathering and sharing.

“We need more boots on the ground to address insecurity in Nigeria. We need to evolve policing in Nigeria to ensure that people who have a better understanding of their areas, know how to secure their areas. One centralised police force is unable to meet the demands that we have.

“We need more boots on the ground. We need adequate welfare to ensure that our security agencies are better-taken care of. We also need to address unemployment — otherwise more young people will be drawn to contribute to the insecurity,” Okowa said.

Kwankwaso who noted that technology was crucial to security, said “some of us who are extended members of the secure architecture are very concerned and ashamed that the security can’t spot criminals especially in these times of using telephones.”