PDP says Atiku will not participate in presidential debate unless Buhari also attends

FORMER vice president and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said he may not participate in the planned public debate unless President Muhammadu Buhari also agrees to take part.

With presidential elections taking place next month, the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) have organised a series of debates, with the presidential candidates originally set for today. However, President Buhari has said that he will not participate, pointing out that he will ask vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo to represent him.

At the moment, Alhaji Abubakar is in the US, so the organisers will have to reschedule the debate but even then, the former vice president may not participate. Kassim Afegbua, the spokesman of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, said his principal would only attend the debate on the condition that President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is also in attendance.

Earlier this week, Prof Itse Sagay, the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, said that President Buhari will not debate with political dwarfs. Mr Afegbua berated Professor Sagay for making such a statement, saying the erudite professor has become a turncoat academic.

He added:  “When you realised that a supposed law professor like Itse Sagay now talks with tongue in cheek, you easily know that societal values and morality have become debased. When you realised that he once taught in the university, then the senility of his intellect has attained double jeopardy.

“Itse Sagay has not only become a turncoat academic but one whose sight invokes pity, sympathy and empathy. How can the APC presidential candidate who has been fighting battles with his Wasc consider others who are duly qualified and well read as dwarfs?

“Who is actually a dwarf here? Is it a presidential candidate running away from debate or one who is challenging the other to a debate?"

Mr Afegbua  added that if the APC presidential candidate is not presenting himself for a debate, the PDP will not allow its presidential candidate to attend. He pointed out that if the APC candidate is, however, ready to engage their candidate, then Alhaji Abubakar is ready and prepared for him.