The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and the All Progressives Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari have chickened out of the ongoing presidential debate at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja organized by Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) among others partners.
While Nigerians were yet to hear from the Presidential Buhari’s campaign organization on why Buhari failed to appear on a presidential debate that was watched by over a million Nigerians, Atiku, who was one of the five presidential candidates billed to participate in the debate, arrived the Transcorp Hilton Hotel venue of the event to learn that President Buhari, who is also scheduled to take part in the exercise failed to show up.
Instead of using the platform provided by the organizers of the exercise to tell Nigerians what he would be doing for them if elected into power come 2019, Atiku in what many has described as a flimsy excuse said: “We came here for a presidential debate, not a candidacy debate, and I, Atiku Abubakar cannot challenge or question an administration where the man at the helm of the affairs of the nation is not present to defend himself or his policies.
“After all, you cannot shave a man’s head in his absence. I do not believe in attacking a man who is NOT here to defend himself.
“As a leader and former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, let me first apologise to all Nigerians, my fellow candidates and the moderator for the APC presidential candidate’s absence in this exercise. His non-appearance is a slight on ALL of us and our democracy.
“Secondly, with all due respect to my fellow candidates, Fela Durotoye, Oby Ezekwesili, Kingsley Moghalu and to the moderator, Mark Sugar and with apologies to all Nigerians here and at home expecting an interesting debate, I regret that I will not be able to go on with this exercise due to President Buhari’s absence.
“I however challenge President Buhari to choose a date and time for a debate where he will be present and I will be there, hopefully with the other candidates as well.
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