Tinubu’s too busy to attend the presidential debate – APC campaign council

THE All Progressives Congress Campaign Council has justified it’s presidential candidates (Bola Tinubu) absence at the live presidential debate held at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, saying that it clashed with a prior engagement.

Tinubu’s counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who was said to be on his way from Morocco, was absent as well, though represented by his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.

The debate which was initiated by a pro-democracy think tank, the Centre for Democracy and Development, had invited the four leading presidential candidates in the 2023 elections to speak on their plans for the country.

The live debate, aired on Arise Television, was meant to let Nigerians ascertain which candidate and political party possessed the best ideas to for bring lasting solutions to the challenges of the nation.

When contacted by The PUNCH, the Director of Media and Communications, Bayo Onanuga, in an exclusive phone chat stated that the debate clashed with Tinubu’s campaign town hall meeting with agro-farmers in Minna, Niger State capital while making reference to the APC presidential campaign calendar to justify his position.

He said, “We are in Minna now for engagement with farmers and agro-commodities groups ahead of tomorrow. The media cannot suddenly come up with a debate and wants us to drop everything we are doing to attend it. It is wrong. We also have our campaign schedule to attend to.”

When reminded that the presidential candidate could still have shown up since the engagement in question is slated for Monday, Onanuga disagreed.

“Are we going to use jet to travel to Minna? As I earlier told you, we are in Minna already and cannot make it to the programme. In our own case, their proposal clashes with the campaign programme of our candidate. That’s why we didn’t turn up,” he stated.

Asked if Tinubu would have turned up at the debate if the Minna engagement has not been fixed, the campaign media director stated that there was a likelihood he might.

He said, “Maybe. But he is busy with some other things and he cannot leave that one for this. There are more important things.

“After Minna, we are returning to Abuja before the next engagement in Nasarawa State on Wednesday. After then, I think Calabar is up for Saturday. You can see that this week is a very busy one for the candidate.

“Again, next week, we will be in Imo State on Tuesday for a rally and zonal stakeholders meeting. It is not on Monday as some people erroneously reported. The earlier schedule people saw was just a draft, which is still subject to amendment.”