Two great presidential candidates, Bola Tinubu of the APC and Atiku Abubakar from the PDP, were absent from the meeting of the President’s Town Hall, which took place on Sunday evening.
While Atiku was represented at the event by his running mate Ifeanyi Okowa, Mr Tinubu had no representation and was replaced by another presidential candidate by the organizers.
The event was organized by the Center for Democracy and Development and Arise Television.
Along with Messrs Tinubu and Atiku, the other two presidential candidates invited to debate were Peter Obi from the Labor Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso from the NNPP. The last two were present at the debate.
The four men were selected after their parties’ performance in an online poll conducted by the organizers, listing all 18 political parties in alphabetical order.
A statement from the CDD revealed that nine parties did not receive a vote after the poll was completed. The remaining nine received the following vote share: African Action Congress (AAC) – 20.7%, All Progressives Congress (APC) – 86.2%, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – 6.9%, Labor Party (LP) – 96.6% New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – 51.7% Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – 82.8% Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) – 6.9% Social Democratic Party (SDP) – 6.9% and Young Progressive Party (YPP) – 13.8%.
The result of that poll informed our decision to invite the four highest-scoring parties — the LP, APC, PDP and NNPP — to City Hall, organizers said.
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However, hours before the event, Mr Tinubu was replaced by Kola Abiola from 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 contacted the organizers to have Mr Okowa represent him. Nothing was said about the APC.
Organizers also did not specify why the APC nominee was not present or represented at the event. Nor did they explain why and how Mr Abiola was chosen as a replacement, given that his party did not finish fifth in the election. The African Action Congress (AAC) took fifth place, whose candidate Omoyele Sowore had complained about being excluded from the debate.
The absence of Mr Tinubu or his representative sparked controversy on social media. Many Nigerians accused the ruling party’s candidate of avoiding critical public engagements.
Some attendees at the Abuja event had also protested Mr Okowa’s presence, saying only the presidential candidates would be allowed to attend. However, organizers said Atiku informed them of his absence and they agreed that he would be represented by his comrade-in-arms.
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