PDP scuttled presidential debates — Maduekwe

Head of Media, Buhari Support Organisation, Dr. Chida Maduekwe

Dr. Chida Maduekwe, the Head of Media, Buhari Support Organisation, a campaign group of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in this interview with TOBI AWORINDE, accuses the Peoples Democratic Party of evading a transparent presidential debate

The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadi Buhari, has boycotted two debates now. Is he scared to go head-to-head with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as has been alleged?

Buhari is not scared to debate with Jonathan. The PDP is the one running away from debates. Political debates are not an along-the-road, knee-jerk, reflex action. It was in 1858 that the United States last used that pattern, when Abraham Lincoln challenged (Senator Stephen) Douglas to a debate on slavery. We are no more in 1858. Today, the US has the Commission on Presidential Debates. The commission is in charge of national debates and it is therefore non-partisan. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party came together to form it.

In Nigeria last year, during the Electoral Act amendment, when a motion was made that the Independent National Electoral Commission should be empowered to conduct presidential debates, the PDP-led National Assembly threw it out. They did so because, in line with their attitude to run away from debates, they didn’t want the President to appear for debates. In this country, right from the time we came back into democracy—in particular, from 2003 to 2011—the PDP has refused to participate in any independent, neutral, credible platform of presidential debates. But Buhari has offered himself three times during the same period.

Is your party calling to question the credibility of the organisers?

The Nigeria Elections Debate Group is made up of employees of government, and you cannot expect an employee to superintend a debate that will make him responsible for his employer’s removal from office. It doesn’t happen. In essence, it is not a level playing field; it is a mischievous platform. These are people paid by government; you do not expect them to deliver to the Nigerian people what they should.

The second debate is a reflex action and you do not expect my principal, who believes in specific, credible platforms, to go along with a reflex action. We have made our point. If the PDP does not want a debate to hold by scuttling it at the National Assembly, then it is to blame.

Let me cite the example of South Africa. The only (presidential) debate held in South Africa was the one that Nelson Mandela had with FW de Klerk. Even at that, it was organised by the African National Congress and the ruling National Party. They both agreed on the template and the methodology of that debate. No individual journalist or non-governmental organisation just comes up to say they want to conduct presidential debates. It is the parties that are involved that agree to set up the methods that these debates are going to follow. They agree on it ab initio before they go in. You don’t just gather them together and say, ‘Start debating.’

Nigeria is supposed to be evolving; we are supposed to be improving on our democratic culture. But because the PDP remains resolute in the continuity of a rotten agenda filled with defamation of character and civil society principles, they don’t want to play by the rules. They rather would like to cast all kinds of aspersion on Buhari, which will not stand.

But the PDP claims your party has something to hide by refusing to participate in a debate.

My principal is not against debates; he is not averse to meeting with members of the fourth estate of the realm, the civil society or any group of Nigerians. Yesterday (Monday), he had a meeting with the business community in Lagos State. Today, he is in Kano State, holding town hall meetings and answering questions without any hanky-panky or hidden agenda. The day after tomorrow, he will be in Ibadan to meet with students and youth leaders. He will also be in Enugu. That is the way he has chosen.

In corrupt, Third World countries, where incumbents find it difficult to have a free and fair election, there are three pillars of incumbency that make government hold on to power: control of the security apparatuses of state, control of the treasury of the state, and control of the mass media. They use their control to suffocate the opposition and push them into a situation that will not be in tandem with the core values and principles they are pursuing.

A member of the PDP campaign team, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, described Buhari as intellectually lazy and unable to withstand a debate with Jonathan without the support of his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Is this true?

People are knowledgeable about Fani-Kayode. He is a man that lacks integrity. We are speaking facts and figures here. This is a man who didn’t have anything to say but to abuse and insult our dear sister, Bianca Ojukwu. When the young lady decided to face him, we saw how cowardly he withdrew and tendered his apology. Today, Fani-Kayode is speaking for the PDP.

This is the same man who said the PDP is dead and gone; that the party had no place in history because the APC was a moving progressive train that had come to sweep them out of power. Today, he is the mouthpiece of the PDP. How can you accept him as someone credible? There is no basis to allude to anything that has been said by the PDP through Fani-Kayode as having any iota of truth. Gen. Buhari has been campaigning, visiting two states, something Jonathan has not been able to do. It is this same man that they say is not strong enough to lead a debate.

Moreover, there is synergy in the combination of presidential and vice-presidential candidates. That is why (US President Barack) Obama chose Joe Biden, who is much older and had been in the system for over 30 years. When choosing a vice-presidential candidate, is there anything wrong in looking for somebody whose strengths will complement yours? They (PDP) are simply angry that we got the best vice-presidential candidate that any Nigerian can ever have.