The presidential candidate of the All-Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has once again missed a live interview. This time it was a town hall meeting organized by Arise Television and a civic group named Centre for Democracy and Development.
The Chief Spokesman of the ruling party’s APC, Festus Keyamo, highlighted reasons for the former governor’s absence as avoiding selective appearance, a hectic schedule and preference of “speaking directly to Nigerians.”
State of play
The presidential candidate of the APC has continued to dodge live interviews since the party’s delegate crowned him as the flag bearer at the national convention. Tinubu has, before Sunday’s miss, shunned events held by the body of lawyers, NBA, the body of chartered accountants, ICAN and the signing of the peace accord ahead of the 2023 general elections.
- The shunning of these events has strengthened the opposition’s claim of ill health, incapacitation and in-eloquentness of Tinubu to handle the rigor of a live interview.
- At his last outing, Tinubu unveiled his action plan in a written address but called on industry experts present at the events to answer questions concerning the plan he presented; further raising questions of competence by observers.
The big picture
Although town hall meetings, debates and professional events do not guarantee election victory, it goes a long way to show the competence of the presidential candidates and their ability to engage the public without a scripted address.