Presidential debate without Sowore makes no sense —Ezekwesili

The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Oby Ezekwesili has said the upcoming presidential debate without the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore would be purposeless.

Ezekwesili gave her stand on her verified twitter handle, @obyezeks, in a series of tweets on Thursday.

She was speaking on the exclusion of the presidential candidates of some political parties in a debate that has been organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON).

The organizers had on Wednesday listed five political parties to participate in the debate which will hold on Saturday, January 19, 2019, while the Vice Presidential debate is scheduled for Friday, December 14, 2018.

The participants of the debate include Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Kingsley Moghalu for the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Ezekwesili.

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But the former minister for education said the selection of five candidates for the debate only translates to less than one-quarter of the total number of presidential candidates for the 2019 election.

She specifically preferred the candidate of Omoyele Sowore of the AAC, who she said had been going around to ignite the political interests of the youth.

“As a country with huge contingent of Parties fielding candidates for election, it does make sense to at least allow more than 5 such parties, at least 25 percent of those candidates, to participate in the most influential of Presidential Debates.

“I especially want to see a candidate like @YeleSowore whose AAC has been diligent in crisscrossing Universities to
awaken our young to engage in our Politics.

“He is doing the country a great service because we must have that generation of Nigerians fully understand and embrace Plato’s counsel: “those who think that politics is beneath them shall be ruled by their inferiors.”

Ezekwesili, who is one of the female candidates that will be running for the presidential seat, said candidates of other political parties, including APGA, KOWA Party and SDP, should have been included.

She advised the organizers to make corrections in the debate ahead of the election she described as “crucial polls.”

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