According to the organisers, the four candidates were selected based on the performance of their parties.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and his New Nigeria Peoples Party counterpart, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso are currently participating in a debate organised by Arise Television and a group, Centre for Democracy and Development.
CDD and Arise TV had invited Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Obi and Kwankwaso for the debate.
According to the organisers, the four candidates were selected based on the performance of their parties in an online survey by the organisers during which all the 18 political parties were listed in alphabetical order.
“The result of this survey informed our decision to invite the highest four scoring parties – LP, APC, PDP and NNPP to the town hall,” the Director of the CDD, Idayat Hassan earlier said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP, Ifeanyi Okowa represented Atiku, while Tinubu had no representative.
However, the anchor, Reuben Abati noted that Atiku might show up later during the course of the debate.
Also, Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party was later added to the list of candidates to participate in the event.
Meanwhile, Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has expressed his dissatisfaction with not being invited to the debate.
Adebayo in a series of tweets on his verified Twitter page described his exclusion and that of other presidential candidates from the debate as unfair.
He described the four candidates invited –Obi, Atiku, Tinubu and Kwankwaso as “the Liar, the Joker, the Dodger, and the Corrupt.”
“The *Arise News* Townhall Meeting with a misnomer called Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) fake Debate for @PeterObi, @atiku @officialABAT and @KwankwasoRM is a rude joke by failed politicians and their bankrupt media lap dogs to rig the 2023 election with a cover-up,” he said.
“How can there be a ballot revolution or people decide if all they have to choose are the Liar, Joker, the Dodger, and the Corrupt? This quartet stands for the 4 sides of the status quo that Nigeria needs to get away from if we want our country not to continue to be a crime scene.
“We need Nigerians to hear from every willing presidential candidate not a few selected by those accomplices who feed on the carcass and leftovers of proceeds of crimes via fake polls of dubious intent and opaque methodologies. Millions of voters are #ADEquate with #HopeAgain2023.”