2023: Stop Running From Debates, Come Out To Face Me – Atiku Challenges Tinubu

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar has asked Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress to stop running away from national debates.

Atiku spoke through his campaign spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan.

He told Saturday Tribune that the APC presidential candidate should come out to debate with him on all issues, including governance, policies, programmes, and their past.

Ologbondiyan said: “We challenge Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to an unscripted debate with Atiku Abuba- kar because Tinubu has been dodging debates and even interviews with the media.

“He has been organizing private sessions with groups which our campaign believes are all choreographed in his favour. In most of these platforms, he either reads a pre- pared script or speaks through proxies who respond to questions on his invitation.

“It is perceptible that the presidential candidate of the APC is not prepared to answer questions arising from the litany of allegations surrounding his past.

“But Nigerians deserve to hear from him as a candidate that desires to govern them. He should prepare himself to respond to their questions and make himself available for interviews in the public space. Atiku Abubakar has had several engagements like these, having prepared himself for leadership roles.”

Atiku’s aide boasted that his principal would defeat the former Lagos State governor in a free and fair election.

“Tinubu does not have the requisite support that can deliver him in a presidential election. With the type of rejection that is greeting him in various states, there is no way he can secure the required 25 percent of votes in 2/3 of states,” he said.

“Even in Lagos, Tinubu has lost a considerable foothold after being demystified as a failed and oppressive leader with a litany of allegations. The traditional support that would have come to his party has now been balkanized by leading parties. So, where will Tinubu draw the support from when the South-West, where he played his politics, has almost become a lost ground?

“Atiku is the only candidate in the 2023 race who has the capacity of winning the constitutionally required 25 percent of votes cast in 2/3 of states across the federation.”