Bill seeking compulsory debates for presidential, governorship candidates scales second reading in Senate

The Senate on Thursday endorsed a bill to make election debates compulsory for presidential and governorship candidates.

The bill which was sponsored by a Senator representing Oyo North, Abdulfatai Buhari, scaled its second reading at the plenary.

If passed into the law, the bill mandates the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise mandatory debates for the candidates to help boost and strengthen the electoral process.

It is also expected that the bill would help in Nigerians to properly assess the candidates and improve the country’s electoral process.

Buhari said: “Voters learn from the debate, and are more accurately able to judge candidates and get additional information about them.

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“It also helps the candidates to speak on a wide range of issues as the National Assembly is doing with ministerial nominees.

“If the ministers can be assessed, it is logically imperative for the president and others to be adequately assessed also.”

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