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One of the beauty that comes with election periods is that the electorates gets to see their candidates take out their supposed oppositions in a well organized debates. There is this thrills and joy that greets you when you know that the candidates you are voting for is cerebral and can defend most of the programs and policies that he or she is putting forward.
Based on the foregoing, the Nigerian Election Debate Group (NEDG) and Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) have announced the dates for 2019 presidential and vice-presidential election debate. The presidential debate is fixed for December 14, 2018, while vice-presidential candidates are billed to have their debate on January 19, 2019.
Before now, many have argued that because of President Buhari’s lack of intellectual and analytical prowess, that the president may not be appearing for any debates before next year’s election. There is hardly anywhere or any function that the president had addressed the crowd without reading from a piece of paper or a prepared speech. Even during party campaigns where many politicians just take the stage and freestyle while talking; President Buhari in those instances was still seen reading his short minutes address. Many have said that the president is not spontaneous, and that he must read from a piece of paper all the time.
Perhaps this could be the reason the president has not organised any presidential media chat since the one he held in December of 2015, few months into his assumption of office as the president. During presidential media chats, journalists are invited to ask the president salient questions as regarding the nation and his different programs and policies. In certain occasions as well, citizens are allowed to forward in their numerous questions; while the president address them on live television.
During Obasanjo tenure, Nigerians witnessed numerous presidential chats and town hall meetings. As a matter of fact, Obasanjo had media chats like monthly, and held town hall meetings on major issues bothering the nation at the time. Even the not-so-cerebral Goodluck Jonathan (according to Nigerians), held a couple of Presidential media chats during his tenure.
Will president Buhari disappoint his critics by gracing this forthcoming presidential debates? Only time will tell. December 14 is around the corner, Nigerians are waiting patiently to see how their president would react to this.
