2023: Tongues Wag Over Tinubu, Atiku No-Show At Dreaded Presidential Debate 

The obvious absence of two prominent presidential candidates, Bola Tinubu of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, from the presidential town hall meeting held on Sunday night has continued to draw attention.

While Ifeanyi Okowa, Atiku’s running mate, was present at the event, Mr. Tinubu was not represented and was substituted by the event’s organisers with another presidential candidate.

The Centre for Democracy and Development and Arise Television coordinated the event.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP were the other two presidential candidates invited for the debate in addition to Messrs. Tinubu and Atiku. The last two were present for the debate.

The four men were chosen based on how well their respective political parties performed in an online survey conducted by the organisers, during which all 18 political parties were listed in alphabetical order.

According to a statement from the CDD, nine parties were left out of the voting after the polls closed. African Action Congress (AAC) received 20.7% of the vote, followed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 86.2%, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with 6.9%, the Labour Party (LP) with 96.6%, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) with 51.7%, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 82.8%, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) with 6.9%, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with 6.9%.

The results of this survey helped us make the decision to invite the top four parties—LP, APC, PDP, and NNPP—to the town hall, according to the organisers.

However, hours before the event, Mr Tinubu was replaced with Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party who was present at the event.

The moderator, Reuben Abati, announced that Atiku was on his way back from Morocco and had communicated with the organisers to let Mr Okowa represent him. Nothing was said of the APC.

The organisers also did not state why the APC candidate was not present or represented at the event. They did not also explain why and how Mr Abiola was chosen as a replacement since his party did not come fifth at the poll. The fifth position was won by the African Action Congress (AAC), whose candidate, Omoyele Sowore, had complained about his exclusion from the debate, according to PREMIUM TIMES.

The absence of Mr Tinubu or his representative stirred controversy on social media. Many Nigerians accused the ruling party candidate of avoiding critical public engagements.

Some attendees at the event in Abuja had also protested the presence of Mr Okowa, saying only the presidential candidates should be allowed to take part. However, the organisers said Atiku had communicated his absence to them and they had agreed that he would be represented by his running mate.