Chairman of the Nigerian Electoral Debate
Group (NEDG), Chief Taiwo Alimi, Thursday
lashed out at the audience in the venue of the
gubernatorial candidate debate at the Women
Development Centre Awka for not playing by
the rules.
The audience had on two occasions applauded
the candidate of the Advanced Congress of
Democrats (ACD) Dr. Ifeatu Ekelem and his
counterpart in the APC, Senator Chris Ngige
for their performance in the debate, an action
that contravened the rules governing the
exercise.
Alimi had reiterated that the rules governing
the debate were clear that no one should
applaud or react in any way and that no
member of the audience should in anyway
participate in the debate beyond observing
the candidates.
Also, indications from the outcome of
Thursday’s debate showed that the candidate
of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA),
Chief Willie Obiano, might not make it to the
finals of the debate as a poll had shown.
But a participant from the Nigerian Union of
Local Government Employees (NULGE), Mr.
Amaechi Ekeledo, insisted that the rule is
‘absolutely unenforceable’ because what we
have here are human beings who would
naturally react when good points that appeal
to the heart are being made.
Ekeledo asked: “What is the debate for? Why
do they need an audience at all if all I can do
after spending time and money to come here
is to sit down and mope? We all might as well
go home and leave the debate officials here,
and watch it in television since there is a live
transmission anyway.”
Bruce Oguajulu of Alliance for Democracy
agrees with Ekeledo, when he said “It is
extremely difficult to say that people should
not one way or another show emotions. In
fact since my secondary school days, all
debates that I have attended had provisions
for debaters to score marks based on
audience reaction to their delivery.
“This stooge approach cannot work, so (Taiwo)
Alimi and his people should take a second
look at that section of the rule because noting
is perfect.”
A teacher, Ndu Igwedibia, however differed
because according to him “the rules were
clear before the blast of the whistle and those
who could not adhere could have stayed at
home and viewed it on television.
Attendance at yesterday’s debate was poor
with observers crediting it to the fact that the
audience did not only have any role to play
but tied to too many inhibitions.
Meanwhile, the fact that Obiano may not
make it to the finals reserved for six
candidates this evening became manifest when
out of a sample of 30 persons interviewed at
an exit poll conducted at the venue, 14 voted
the candidate of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), Senator Chris Ngige, as their first
choice candidate in the first session of the
debate; six voted Dr Ifeatu Ekelem of ACD, five
for Austin Nwangwu of CPP and four for
Obiano and one for Aaron Igwe.
Ngige however identified energy as the only
reason many industries are dead in Anambra
State and promised to reverse the trend by
buying an Independent Power Project that
would inject 1000 megawatts of electricity
into the state.
But Obiano recorded a major contradiction,
promising to get the state’s oil refinery at
Aguleri working in his first 100 days in office,
only to declare at the later part of the debate
that he would ensure the refinery works
within the first nine months in office.
Both candidates fielded questions from a
three-man panel on what was considered the
most critical issue in the state and what they
would do to tackle it in the first 100 days in
office.
Obiano, who was late to the debate, had
claimed that a motor accident forced him to
use another route to the venue and was
warned twice by the moderator, Nancy Ilo, to
desist from personal attacks.
Ngige who said the most critical problem in
Anambra was security, added that “I will
address this issue from the curative approach
in my first 100 days in office.”
Apart from Ngige and Obiano the other
candidates who participated the debate held
at the Women Development Centre Awka were
Mr Chika Jerry of Action Alliance; Ekelem of
ACD; Aaron Igweze of Alliance for Democracy
(AD); Anthony Anene of the Action Congress
Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and Austin Nwangwu
of Citizens Popular Party (CPP). stood out as
the best for Anambra State as he would bring
dynamism to the governance of the state.
“Masters of Ceremonies hold the power to
educate the citizens on the functions and
actions of the government and are a very
important segment of the information
dissemination machinery that should be
harnessed by governments to inform and
educate the people,” he said.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/at-debate-organisers-knock-audience-for-breaking-the-rules-/163227/

Lol, dude could not even make top 3 in the first debate, anywhere, I hope he is rigged in for the final debate. Even the crowd could not help clapping for Ngige

Useless article. You guys can do a better propaganda than this na

warrior01: Useless article. You guys can do a better propaganda than this na

shut your dirty mouth, the debate was watched live and it was obvious Obiano is a failure and fyi, this is from thisday!

FreeGlobe:
shut your dirty mouth, the debate was watched live and it was obvious Obiano is a failure and fyi, this is from thisday!

Lol... an article written by who? Aturu

FreeGlobe:
shut your dirty mouth, the debate was watched live and it was obvious Obiano is a failure and fyi, this is from thisday!

Another reporter would write something entirely different from this. The media houses are so biased now.
This nov 16th should come and go already

Don't mind the residential id!ot. I don't know how he thinks that all these cheap propaganda will take them to zik's house. FYI, Apga, Apc, Labour and Ppa will slug it out later today.

Can't wait to see what you have to say when he will be invited as the first debater!

FreeGlobe:
shut your dirty mouth, the debate was watched live and it was obvious Obiano is a failure and fyi, this is from thisday!

I cum dey use style style dey LIKE you oo since you don dey support Ngige..

*Smiles*

at op ngige was attacking obiano and not obiano attacking ngige 2) obiano was using facts and figure to support is agumnt but ngige was jst saying when i was there i did this and did that he even lied that those road he constructed then where still good while the once obi did has no face again b4 the ADC guy gave his story which he ngige was laughing cos he new it was d truth 3) ngige should not b fighting obiano with what obi did he should fight obiano with what obiano did if we took because of what mbadinuju did and said ngige is bad he will nvr b one time governor today because both of them are from d same party.dat tinubu did not work did not stop fashola from working,dat mbadinuju did not work did not stop ngige from working, so ngige fight obiano and leave obi out of it,(4) ngige should remenber that his the 1st seating governor to be kidnaped which the ADC guy told him to his face,go to okija to sign agreement and who dont keep to promises he made which is one of the problem his having with his party now with Annie okonkwo and tinubu.pls if u did not what the debate pls dont quote me.

APGA is dead, murdered by Peter Obi on the altar of Greed and Avarice.
The hatred and distrust for Mr. Obi and whatever he stands for is palpable through out Awka. Cutting across both the indigenes and non-indigenes.
If he wants the votes to swing towards his stooge, he should start by returning $3billion to Anambra. He may keep the balance of $1 for the future of his children.

APGA is dead, murdered by Peter Obi on the altar of Greed and Avarice.
The hatred and distrust for Mr. Obi and whatever he stands for is palpable through out Awka. Cutting across both the indigenes and non-indigenes.
If he wants the votes to swing towards his stooge, he should start by returning $3billion to Anambra. He may keep the balance of $1billion for the future of his children.

Junk journalism.
Make no mistake, this piece of poo was sponsored by Ngige and his APC retards

FreeGlobe: Lol, dude could not even make top 3 in the first debate, anywhere, I hope he is rigged in for the final debate. Even the crowd could not help clapping for Ngige

Trust me, friend, Obiano beat Ngige black and blue in that debate. I watched it from opening to the last second. And as someone who doesn't have so much investment in Anambra politics, it'll be unnecessary for me to want to distort the truth. With what you wrote I can safely swear you didn't watch the debate. The ADC guy was 'cheered' by the crowd about three times or four because of his grammar. He said he's spent 30yrs (to-ri yrs, in his voice) in the US before coming down to contest in Anambra guber. He kept entertaining people with his Americannah and his 'bone', meanface, in his agbada and face cap dressing. He talked like he was campaigning somewhere in Houston, Texas, or in Florida. They cheer for Ngige came when he said that the roads he built 9yrs ago were still intact while the once built 8yrs ago by APGA gov't were going bad. In all, Willie Obiano of APGA was the most articulate and well grounded debater. He delivered on debate content everytime and all time. He knew when and how to throw Ngige off balance and have him gasping for a air and reaching for a string. As for the poll ThisDay claim to have conducted after the debate, I wasn't there and therefore can neither corroborate nor refute the result. This is just to make the records straight as an unbiased observer who watched the live broadcast and not just one who read from paid propagandists in e- and mainstream media.