Buhari not out of presidential debate yet – Alimi

Chairman of the Working Com­mittee of the Nigerian Elec­tions Debate Group (NEDG), Aremo Taiwo Alimi, has said that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gener­al Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has not written the NEDG that he will not be participating in the presidential debate slated for February 8.

Alimi spoke against the background of media reports credited to the Director, Me­dia and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mallam Garba Shehu that Buhari would not participate in the presidential debate as a result of bias on the part of the bodies comprising the NEDG.

But in this interview with AIDOGHIE PAULINUS in Abuja, Alimi said Shehu’s statement does not depict the mindset of Buhari. Excerpts…

How is the preparation for the forthcoming presidential debate?

The NEDG has really completed all plans for the 2015 presidential debates that will feature presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates. The first group is going to be on February 1, which is Sunday and will start at 12 noon. The first session is from 12 to 2pm where we will have five vice presidential candidates featuring, and the next will be 3 to 5pm where we will have another five vice presidential candi­dates featuring. And the last session for the day is slated for 7 to 9pm where four vice presidential candidates will feature. That is the plan so far and we are using the Inter­national Conference Centre, Abuja, as the venue for both the vice presidential candi­dates debate and the presidential candidates which is on February 8.

Have you contacted all the candi­dates?

We as NEDG, we have integrity, we have trust, we have professionalism and we have experience. We have made contact with all the 14 political parties approved by the In­dependent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to feature presidential candidates and we always go by the INEC rules and INEC approval. We have made contact with all of them and we are happy to say that there is not one of the 14 political par­ties that has written to NEDG that they will not participate. We have written to them, we submitted rules and everything to them and we expect all of them to participate.

Are they not supposed to write let­ters of acceptance?

They are supposed to give letters back to us. For instance, whether it is in 2003, 2007, or 2011, those who don’t want to par­ticipate would write us. They have written us letters that their vice presidential candi­date is hospitalised and would not be able to attend or their presidential candidate is sick like we had in 2011. So, we then felt that is the normal thing. If you are going to be a leader of a country like Nigeria and an organisation that is the most credible, the most powerful elections debate group in Nigeria and Africa, then, you would respond to their formal letter and notice whether you want to come or not and give your reasons. So far, we have not received any letter from any of the 14 that they will not participate in the elections debate of NEDG.

As the founding chairman of the NEDG, would you say past debates have helped in making our elections a worthwhile venture?

First and foremost, through the elec­tions debate by the NEDG, it has helped tremendously since 2003 when we had the first one; 2007, 2011 and it is going to help in 2015 to help the average voter finally make their decision on whom to vote for after watching or listening to the debate by NEDG. What we have had is that through the debates in the past few years, Nigeri­an electorate have always used the debates to finally determine who they will vote for after listening to them on the platform of NEDG because we have received a lot of submissions by Nigerian electorate that they have not gained anything from politi­cal campaigns by political parties, that they have always been watching them in a near theatre type of performance. But through the debate of NEDG, they have listened and watched them and they used it to make up their minds to vote properly on voting day what we call informed choices on vot­ing day.

Also, through our debates, especially presidential, it has always helped to mini­mize violence seriously in Nigeria on vot­ing day. And the security people have com­mended us for that, that when Nigerians and those who are followers of politicians watch the debates and they see the candi­dates shaking hands when they arrive on the rostrum, embracing themselves, those followers then say why are we fighting our­selves about these candidates, see the way they are happy to see one another, that on voting day, we are not going to do any vi­olence at all. And that has helped tremen­dously because many of them don’t know that they can really be as friendly with one another as they see them on television live.

The Director, Media and Public­ity, APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, has said the party’s presidential candidate, General Mu­hammadu Buhari (retd), would not participate in the debate, alleging bias on the part of NEDG. How do you see this development?

First, the gentleman you called Director of Media and Publicity for APC does not understand the difference between medium and organising. The medium and the organ­iser are different. As a founding chairman, I challenge him if he has anything that has to do that queries my own integrity, trust and professionalism in all my professional life. Therefore, the APC Director of Media and Publicity simply does not understand the structure of the NEDG. Is he telling us that the Nigerian Guild of Editors or Alliance for Credible Elections is biased? These are people who should be careful about what they say on behalf of their candidates. So, far, they should realise that General Buhari has participated in our debate, therefore, he knows the rules and the format that we use. I would say that what the Director of Media and Publicity for APC said is out of lack of knowledge of the structure of the NEDG. First and foremost, the Broadcast­ing Organisation of Nigeria (BON) is not the NEDG. BON is a member of NEDG. The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a member; the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) is a member; Alliance for Cred­ible Elections is a member, therefore, the statement, I have only been told. I have not read the statement, but I think that is not the heart of General Buhari. It is not his heart. He has participated in the debate in the past and he loved it and I am still sure General Buhari will participate on February 8 pres­idential debate by NEDG.

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