Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) presidential candidate Oby Ezekwesili has called for the inclusion of the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore in the presidential debate scheduled for January 2019.
Mrs Ezekwesili made this plea in a series of tweets on Thursday.
“As a country with huge contingent of parties fielding candidates for election, it does make sense to at least allow more than five such parties, at least 25 per cent of those candidates, to participate in the most influential of presidential debates. #PresidentialDebates
“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 wrote.
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. #PresidentialDebates
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) December 13, 2018
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… #PresidentialDebates
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) December 13, 2018
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”. #PresidentialDebates
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) December 13, 2018
Mr Sowore is the publisher of US-based publication, Sahara Reporters.
The Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) are responsible for organising such debates.
NEDG and BON had issued a statement on Tuesday noting that only five political parties would participate in the presidential debate.
They are: Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives Party (YPP).
The former education minister also asked that APGA, KOWA and SDP candidates be added to the list.
I also believe that candidates of APGA, KOWA Party & SDP should be part of an additional list of 5 candidates for the Presidential Debate of BON/NEDG, considering their assiduous efforts to galvanize a base of citizens to get involved in these crucial polls. #PresidentialDebates
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) December 13, 2018
