BUHARI HAS NO TIME FOR PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES -Group
A group, National Democratic Front, NDF, has advised the PDP to bury the idea of a presidential debate with Buhari, whom they said is busy with meaningful projects that would better the nation.
The group has warned that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot drag the flag bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari, to a presidential debate.
The National Democratic Front (NDF) said the clamour for a presidential debate involving President Buhari ahead of the 2019 presidential election is uncalled for.
Speaking in Abuja during a press conference, the national president of the NDF, Audu Awulu, said the insistence that President Buhari must take part in a presidential debate can be likened “to a drunk requesting for a marathon with a sprinter.”
Awulu said the PDP failed four consecutive presidential debates for 16-years and could not, by any means, drag President Buhari into its level.
He said Buhari had during his three and half years in office literally debated with developmental projects, not media debate the opposition is clamouring for.
According to Awulu, President Buhari has debated with projects, including those cited in geopolitical zones that the PDP neglected in its wasted years.
Awulu said: “He has debated with the war on graft, which was the largest sector of the economy under the watch of the PDP.
He further advised the PDP to bury the idea of a presidential debate with Buhari, whom they said is busy with meaningful projects that would better the nation.
“The latest of this obsessive request was from PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, who challenged President Buhari to a live debate with PDP’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. We understand that the party wants the focus of the debate to be on critical sectors in the country.
“The first impression we have of this challenge is that the brains behind the PDP have a wrong notion of what constitutes a debate. Their understanding of a debate as part of a presidential election is apparently that of the raucous shouting match they engage in on local television networks, where the most strident person is adjudged the winner irrespective of whether the views they hold and expressed tallied with reality or not.
“What the PDP, however, failed to realize is that the debate took place long ago and it came out the loser. The real live debate began on May 29, 1999, and the PDP had the chance to be the first speaker; the PDP had 16 whole years of four tenures to argue its point and convince Nigerians that it should remain in office for 60 years like it once hallucinated.
“In those 16 years that the PDP had to speak to Nigerians through actions, it dismally flunked and dashed its own chances. They were 16 years of plundering, divisiveness, privatization of the state for individual benefits, failure to build institutions and systems while focusing on creating strong men that were more powerful than the society. They were 16 years of laying the foundation for the emergence of Boko Haram, IPOB and other toxic groups that today threaten the existence of the country.
“President Buhari with the APC have had less than four years of one tenure to the PDP’s 16 years and in that short period had debated through actions and projects on why Nigerians must never return to the Egypt of the PDP”, he said.
Post Disclaimer
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author and forum participants on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Anaedo Online or official policies of the Anaedo Online.
