Candidates Protest Exclusion From Presidential Debate

Candidates Protest Exclusion From Presidential Debate

. . It’s APC’s Rigging Agenda –Olawepo-Hashim

Some
presidential candidates in the 2015 general election yesterday
protested their exclusion from the presidential debate organised by the
Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations
of Nigeria (BON).

This is the Inter-Party Advisory Council
(IPAC), an umbrella body of all political parties in Nigeria, has vowed
to conduct its own debate in which all candidates will have the
opportunity to sell their ideas to the electorate.

It made the
comment yesterday while reacting to the exclusion of most of its members
from participating in the presidential debate being organised by the
NEDG and BOI.

LEADERSHIP Friday recalls that organisers of the
debate had on Wednesday earmarked only five political parties to
participate in the upcoming presidential debate.

A statement by
the NEDG executive secretary, Eddi Emesiri, listed the selected parties
as the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria
(ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
and Young Progressives Party (YPP).

Some presidential candidates
in the 2015 general election yesterday protested their exclusion from
the presidential debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group
(NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON).

This
is the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), an umbrella body of all
political parties in Nigeria, has vowed to conduct its own debate in
which all candidates will have the opportunity to sell their ideas to
the electorate.

It made the comment yesterday while reacting to
the exclusion of most of its members from participating in the
presidential debate being organised by the NEDG and BOI.

LEADERSHIP
Friday recalls that organisers of the debate had on Wednesday earmarked
only five political parties to participate in the upcoming presidential
debate.

A statement by the NEDG executive secretary, Eddi
Emesiri, listed the selected parties as the Allied Congress Party of
Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives
Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives
Party (YPP).

The five presidential candidates are Oby Ezekwesili, Fela Durotoye, Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Kingsley Moghalu.

Gbenga
Olawepo-Hashim of People’s Trust (PT), Omoyele Sowore of the African
Alliance Congress (AAC), Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party
(SDP), Tope Fasua of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) and a host of
others were excluded.

Reacting to the development, the
presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN),
Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, called upon the NEDG and BON to include
candidates of other political parties in the presidential debate.

Ezekwesili
asserted that candidates of other political parties should also be
given an opportunity to participate in the debate as it would give
Nigerians a better understanding of their ideologies.

She said,
“As a country with a huge contingent of parties fielding candidates for
the election, it does make sense to at least allow more than five such
parties, at least 25 per cent of those candidates, to participate in the
most influential of presidential debates.

. . . It’s APC’s Rigging Agenda –Olawepo-Hashim

In
his reaction, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim of Peoples Trust has described the
selection of candidates as biased, anti-democratic and the agenda of
the ruling APC to rig the 2019 presidential election.

A
statement signed by Olawepo-Hashim’s spokesman, Hassan Ibrahim, said the
exclusion was, no doubt, regrettable because the party had long
indicated interest in participating in the debate.

The spokesman
said the party hoped that the debating group was not working in cahoots
with the ruling APC to undermine the strides the party was making with
its spread across the country.

“We urge Nigerians not to be
disturbed by this development as genuine people’s debate is in the works
where concrete solutions to the many problems bedeviling Nigeria will
be proffered. Our campaign will be part of this new debate with many
patriotic candidates who truly want to see a better Nigeria in 2019,” he
said.

. . . My Exclusion, Beginning Of Electoral Fraud -Sowore

On
his part, the presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC),
Mr. Omoyele Sowore, has described his non-inclusion in the planned
presidential debate organised by the NEDG and BON as the beginning of
electoral fraud in the forthcoming general elections.

Sowore made
this comment yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport
(MMIA), Lagos, during an interview with airport correspondents after he
arrived from the United States.

Sowore remarked that
President Muhammadu Buhari was already jittery over the outcome of the
2019 polls and would make attempts to rig the election in his favour,
which, he said, would be strongly resisted by the people.

He
declared that he was ready for debates on the election, and that he and
his followers would fight to ensure his inclusion on the list of
debaters for the election

Sowore further asserted that he was the
most prepared and popular of all the candidates and wondered why his
name would not be included in the list.

“What we know is that Mr.
President and his party are already afraid about conducting free and
fair polls in 2019. The beginning of the electoral fraud was the
non-inclusion of my name among the presidential debaters.

“We
won’t allow this to deter us because, for us, the debate has commenced.
Apart from using Nigerian media, there are some other media where issues
are already being discussed,” he said.

On the refusal of
Buhari to give assent to the Electoral Act as passed by the National
Assembly, Sowore said the president wanted to perpetrate fraud by his
action as giving assent to Act would reduce corruption in the system.

. . . We’re Not Bothered About Debate – Gabam

However,
unlike others who have decried their exclusion, the vice presidential
candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Shehu Gabam, yesterday
stated that his party was not bothered about the national debate, saying
it had become partisan and watered down.

Gabam told LEADERSHIP
Friday that the significance of the debate had been eroded, stressing
that it would not win votes for the candidates as it had become a
jamboree and platform to boo and intimidate candidates.

He said,
“They have watered down the essence of the debate. They have shown
partisanship and have ridiculed the importance of the national debate.
Also you know, the debate has never added a vote to all those that
participated, otherwise former governor of Kano State Ibrahim Shekarau
would have been the president of Nigeria in the 2011 election based on
the debate.

“But they have reduced it to a jamboree. I think
serious parties should not worry about the debate. I am not worried
about it and, of late, people have been coerced and harassed at the
debate and people do not want to be subjected to that by hired crowd. It
is against the rules of the profession when people come there and boo
people. So, for us we don’t add any value to it; they can go ahead and
do what they have to do. The president himself will not attend the
debate, so it has been watered down.”

. . . IPAC Kicks, Says it will conduct own debate

Also,
the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), an umbrella body of all
political parties in Nigeria, has condemned what it described as a
deliberate plot to deny a majority of the political parties in Nigeria
of their constitutional right by excluding them from participating in
the presidential debate being organised by the Nigerian Election Debate
Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON).

National
chairman of IPAC, Chief Ameh Peter, in an exclusive interview with
LEADERSHIP Friday, explained that the 1999 constitution (as amended)
envisaged marginalisation and, therefore, created the opportunity for a
multi-party system to ensure that minority voices are heard.

“What
the constitution does is to give the right of choice to every Nigerian.
It is unfortunate that the NEDG and BON did not even dialogue with
other presidential candidates before shutting them out of the debate.
Even the NBC code stipulated that broadcasting stations must accommodate
diverse shades of opinions, so I don’t know the criteria considered by
the debate group,” he said.

Ameh noted that the non-inclusion of
some presidential candidates outrightly denied affected political
parties and their candidates their constitutionally enshrined rights.

“Not
giving some presidential candidates the opportunity to participate in
the debate actually takes away the rights of affected political parties
and candidates to participate freely in the electioneering process,” he
noted.

Ameh declared that IPAC had concluded plans to constitute a
committee with a mandate to organise presidential debates that would
give all presidential candidates the opportunity to speak to Nigerians
on their plans for the country.

“We must establish the
rights of all our members; this is the right that the constitution has
granted to us. IPAC is going to constitute a committee to organise our
own debate, and we will make sure that all our people are accommodated,”
he stated.

Ameh lamented that some very vibrant and brilliant
presidential candidates who have crisscrossed almost every part of the
country with their campaign trains were excluded from the debate.

“How
can you explain this, somebody like Omoyele Sowore who has traversed
almost every part of the country with his campaign was excluded.

“For
somebody like Eunice Atuejide, presidential candidate of the National
Interest Party (NIP) who speaks several languages and has a development
blueprint to showcase, people like Dr. Davidson Akhimien of GDPN, Tope
Fasua of ANRP who is an Economists and several others to be excluded
from the debate, we should all be worried, “ Ameh stated.