Atiku at the Congress Hall, venue of the Presidential debate but he refused to participate because of President Buhari’s absence

By Segun Dele Dipe

Since the return to democracy in 1999, the PDP has boycotted SIX presidential debates despite PMB and other aspirants honouring it. I wanted to sit back and laugh at PDP supporters wailing, lamenting bitterly and gnashing their teeth in ‘sifia pains’ over Buhari’s absence because they desperately needed his presence to dignify their candidate on the podium of discussion, just the way he needed their candidates in past debates and they ensured they deprived him of it. God bless those who advised Buhari to make the PDP have a taste of the bitterness of their own pill!

#Checkthis

1999
Olu Calae showed up for debate
PDP candidate OBJ, sure of victory, didn’t come
PDP won.

2003
Buhari showed up for debate
PDP candidate, OBJ, sure of victory, didn’t come.
PDP won

2007
Buhari showed up for debate
PDP Yar’Adua, sure of victory, didn’t come
PDP won.

2011
Buhari Showed up for debate
PDP Jonathan, sure of victory, didn’t come
PDP won.

2015
Buhari, sure of victory
PDP , facing defeat, was now begging for debate
Buhari didn’t come
APC won.

2019
Buhari, sure of victory
PDP, facing defeat, was begging for debate
Buhari didn’t come
APC will win

Buhari has participated in Presidential debates for THREE consecutive election seasons.

PDP has NEVER participated in any before. so, who is afraid of debates?

Buhari lost elections despite participating in debates THREE times. Debate doesn’t determine voting outcome in Nigeria of today and that is why the PDP has NEVER participated in any and still won elections. That’s why Buhari won when he stopped participating in it.

Buhari has used his participation in three debates to discover that the Nigerian electorates are not moved by debates, they are moved by Popularity of the candidates among them. Buhari has therefore worked on his popularity and again coasting home to victory next month.

Let the PDP also do debates for three political seasons to discover what moves Nigerian electorates. Unfortunately, they have lost it this year. They need the next 16 years to get opportunity for another three debates since they have failed to learn from Buhari’s experience. In other words, PMB is 16 years ahead of them in the knowledge of the political reality of Nigeria today.

PDP candidate gave a rather ridiculous excuse for not participating. He said it is not ‘Candidacy debate’, it’s ‘Presidential debate’ and therefore He won’t debate without the President being there! Lol… He should be told the implied meaning of Presidential debate is ‘Presidential Candidates debate’. What happens in a situation where the incumbent is not contesting and all candidates are fresh? Does that change the name from Presidential debate to another thing? Lol…

In those three occasions where Buhari participated and the PDP failed to show up, the organisers never changed it to ‘Candidacy debates’ because they weren’t grammatically disoriented! The PDP also failed to realise that Presidential debate is meant for candidates to sell their programmes to their audience and not to the incumbent president lol…

This is the first time in Nigeria’s Political history that PDP could have participated in a presidential debate, yet they gave such a frivolous excuse that Buhari didn’t come. What about those three occasions he came while PDP still absconded, despite being in power?

Atiku needs the presidential debate far more than Buhari now. Buhari doesn’t need it to win. Atiku needs it more, except the PDP is afraid of Oby Ezekwezili that has been looking for a close avenue to strip them of the remnants of their past glory.

To Atikulooters who might want to say PMB was running away from debate, first tell us why your party had never honoured any debate in the past and only desperate to debate with only PMB now.

Check the scorecard below:

Buhari in debate = 3/5
PDP in debate = 0/6

We then ask, Who is afraid of debates?