The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC says its Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari has no reason to attend last Saturday’s presidential debate organized by the Nigerian Election Debate Group in conjunction with the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria.
While the APC Presidential Campaign Council Spokesperson, Festus Keyamo defended Buhari’s absence at the debate on official schedules and earlier campaign outing in Niger State, APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa – Onilu at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday boasted that the achievements of the President were more than a mere debate which is for those seeking power
According to Issa- Onilu, “the President doesn’t have to give any reason at all for not attending the debate. Let me reiterate as I said earlier, that the debate is just one of several platforms available for candidates to engage with the public. We cannot exhaust all the platforms. So we picked the platforms that most impactful and we are the one in position to determine what platform to use.
“Debate with who? That’s an insult that the President will come and debate with who? The debate the President is having is what he did that morning in Niger State. The people of Niger State can look forward to feel the brighter future. The people of this country everywhere they go can see development, they can see projects going on. So these are the debates that President is already engaging with the public.
“So that particular debate may be important and I think is important to people who are seeking power not for somebody who has a lot speaking for him already. So for us, APC the debate as fantastic idea it may be, it is just one of the several options for the candidates to engage with the public. There are many platforms we have used. There are many platforms we are going to use. There are many that we may not use. It’s just up to us to pick and chose the platforms that will serve our best interest.
“Don’t forget, just few days before this debate came up, the President was live for two hours with Nigerians discussing his projects. Beside him was the Vice President of this country talking about his projects, having very important debate over those policies and projects with Nigerians, with people having unfettered access and opportunity to make calls to him to seek clarification and ask questions. That for us is what our candidate needs.
“That for us is more important. That for us gives us the platform to say we are different. We are not in the same class with Atiku and PDP to come and share the same stage with people who ruin this country? To talk about what? The same people who started several projects and the projects became conduit pipe for them to steal money”.
He however, alleged that the Presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Abubakar Atiku instead of using the debate to tell Nigerians about his policies and programmes was prepared to attack President Buhari hence he arrogantly run away from the debate when the President did not show up.
“You have the opportunity to tell us you have turned a new leave. That you are a new person. That you are no longer a corrupt person. That you now mean well for us in this country. Atiku understanding of that opportunity was to see the President physically standing beside him and then attack him not his policies, not his programmes but to attack the President personally. That’s what he said he wanted to do and he said he won’t be able to do that if the President was not physically present. That was scandalous”, the APC Spokesperson said.
While reacting to allegations of former President Olusegun Obasanjo that APC has concluded plan with Independent National Electoral Commission to rig the forthcoming general elections, Onilu said, “for eight years of Obasanjo, all institutions of government were brought under his wings and what he did for eight years is what is haunting him. He cannot imagine that it is possible for a government to allow INEC the statutory independence that it has. We have had 93 or more elections since APC came to power and you can be sure that all those elections were conducted without any interference from this government. In fact, if there is any anything you want to credit this government for, one of the major ones is the fact that institutions are allowed to fulfill their mandate without anyone interference.
“So, I understand where the former President is coming from, his past is haunting him. He imagined that way he did it. Looked back that if they used the same method he used, this is what is going to happen. 2003 and 2007 elections were nothing to write home about. This happened under former President Obasanjo. We all know how the elections went. So for us in APC, votes will count. We are going to have free, credible and fair elections. We have no reason to want to rig elections”.
James Kwen, Abuja
