BY Mayowa Tijani
Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), will not be attending the presidential debate jointly organised by Channels Television, Arise Television and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).
Dele Alake, former Lagos commissioner for information and strategy who is director of strategic communication for the Buhari Campaign Organisation, made this known at while speaking on Channels television daily programme, Sunrise Daily.
According to Alake, some Nigerian media organisations have been compromised and cannot be said to be independent, hence the credibility of the debate is doubtful.
“There is intelligence available to us to suspect the partisanship of some of the organisers, not all, but some members of the organising body, and we have concrete intelligence to prove that they are partisan,” he said.
“They are not just partisan in terms of their exposures but also partisan in terms of active collaboration with PDP in some of the anti-Buhari activities that are going on, including protest. And they are not just partisan because of their exposure, but also in their involvement in anti-Buhari campaigns.
“For instance we know that a particular person who, prominent in the organising committee of the NEDG, was part and parcel of those who planned the protest for postponement of election in Abuja, and even had a meeting in Abuja.”
He added that the APC had the names of all those who attended the meeting, pushing for postponement elections.
“We have the names of all those who attended the meeting, and they came back to Lagos the same day to plan the postponement protest in Lagos and we monitored everything. This is a very integral part of the sponsorship of this debate,” he said.
“So it will be foolhardy for us to participate in such debate. But if we see a debate organised by non-partisan and impartial people, Buhari would be good to participate tomorrow.”
It is the second time within a week that Buhari has confirmed his unwillingness to participate in a presidential debate.
On Thursday, Buhari declined to participate in the presidential debate organised by the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria (BON).
According Garba Shehu, directorate of media and publicity of the APC presidential campaign organisation, the boycott was due to the “unhidden bias and campaign of calumny by some key organisers of the programme, against the corporate political interest of the party (APC) and its candidates”.
Shehu argued that the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) powered debate was fraught with fundamental errors from the outset, by wearing the toga of government control, especially being composed mainly of agencies and allies of the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration.
“A salutary inspection of the composition of NEGD brings into focus the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), National Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Africa Independent Television (AIT, owned by a PDP chieftain),” he said.
On Friday,the Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF), in partnership with CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa and BusinessDay, announced its plans to host the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the two frontline political parties, APC and PDP, to live debates to present their proposed agenda to the electorate.
The MMF ‘2015 Presidential Election Debates’, scheduled for February 8 in Abuja, are to feature Architect Namadi Sambo, Jonathan’s running mate and his APC counterpart, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) in the first leg, while Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari will go head-to-head in the second leg. Both debates are scheduled to hold in Abuja, on February 8, 2015.
“The debates have been expressly designed to elevate the level of political discourse in our country, enhance participatory democracy as well as re-focus attention on national growth and development during this election period,” Mrs. Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, chief executive officer of the foundation said.
Buhrai has yet to officially confirm or reject participation at this debate.
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