Before a representative of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC’s presidential candidate, could debate Peter Obi, the labour party’s presidential candidate, a number of requirements had to be satisfied.
Recall that Tinubu skipped the Arise TV-hosted presidential town hall on November 6th. Obi and Kwankawso were in attendance, and PDP presidential contender Atiku Abubakar was represented by Ifeanyi Okowa.
The APC stated in a statement on Tuesday, November 29, that Obi cannot debate Bola Tinubu but that it would rather send one of Tinubu’s media assistants to do so, once Obi has presented his manifesto and demonstrated his political prowess as a former governor of the state of Anambra.
One of the requirements mentioned by the APC was that Obi identify his political mentor from the time he was governor till the present.
Festus Keyamo, a spokesman for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, said:
”They have no manifesto, so what are we debating? What documents are we comparing? He said Nigerians should depend on what is inside his brain, not on any document.
“So, Asiwaju will then be debating with what? Is this campaign a joke to them? Do they think this is a Debating and Dramatic society in school?”
“Before Obi can stand shoulder to shoulder with Asiwaju to debate, he should first release a manifesto for scrutiny; then he should list his tangible achievements as Governor of Anambra State compared to the tangible achievements of Asiwaju as Governor of Lagos State.
“Then he should list those he has mentored in politics from the days of his being Governor who is still with him now; then he should tell us any political party he has either formed or partnered to form and which he still belongs to today.
“Then he should list his democratic credentials, that is what he did to contribute to the return to democracy from Military rule and what he has since done, better than Asiwaju, to sustain our democracy”.
“After all these, we shall send them one of our spokespersons to debate with him”.
