President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday denied asking for advanced questions ahead of today’s presidential debate organised by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON). He added that there was never a time now or in the past that he asked for likely questions as a precondition for his participation in any presidential debate.

Jonathan made the denial through the deputy director general of his campaign organisation, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, and Dr. Doyin Okupe, who visited the venue of the debate to ascertain the preparedness of the organiser.
Maduekwe said: “It is unfortunate if anyone could make that kind of suggestion that the President asked for advanced question.”

“It is my opinion that if you want to be a president you must respect the office. The office is bigger than whoever occupies it. If it is bigger than who occupies it; it is even much bigger than those who want to occupy it. Comments that are intended to denigrate the president denigrate all of us even if we are not in support of Jonathan.

To suggest that the president of Nigeria, a university scholar, a don, will want to see questions in advance before he engages in debate is the height of vile propaganda, masquerading as politics. Can I say categorically there was no such thing.”
Scoring the organiser high, Maduekwe said there was no need changing the organiser of an event, who had performed creditably in the past.

Stressing on the need for the debate, the former foreign affairs minister said Nigerians “ need to make an informed choice. Our democratic journey needs to continually improve and this is an opportunity for us to benchmark that improvement.”

He urged political parties not to use the debate as an opportunity to get at each other by making inciting comments.
Explaining the Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo’s preference to participate in the BON debate to the one organized by NN24, he said it was due to the capacity of the audience it could reach and the expected impact.

“We should be united on the need for Nigeria to have a platform that they are familiar with and has the widest reach because ultimately what this seek to achieve is the widening of democratic space; but we cannot achieve this if the platform that is being used does not have the kind of reach the previous organizer had. We have to be moving forward and not backward”.

To suggest that the president of Nigeria, a university scholar, a don, will want to see questions in advance before he engages in debate is the height of vile propaganda, masquerading as politics. Can I say categorically there was no such thing.”

Blazay:


Eziokwu?

I never knew he was a mafia 'don' o!

Chai! The beauty of the internet. You can read the crap people write all over the www without reaching across from your computer screen to give them some dirty hot slaps!

WTF?

pj5:

My question is, how come it took them more than seven days  think up a rebuttal for that story? How come the president never said a word about it or deny it on his fb page like he does  everything?

He added that there was never a time now or in the past that he asked for likely questions as a precondition for his participation in any presidential debate.

debest1:

abeg leave GEJ alone, he rebuts an allegation people complain, he keeps quiet people complain, na wa. My take is if you are not in tune with the guy leave am alone and go vote for your man, all this GEJ bashing is now getting very very boring jare

zeeleso:

I wish I could, but he's the president of Nigeria and also a presidential candidate. He shouldn't be left alone, his policies should be examined, his actions scrutinised. He is answerable to us. We are his employers(at least supposed to be). I'm glad its getting boring to you, that means you must have read enough of the complaints and a gaffe on his side and the following condemnation is no longer news to you and frankly most people. But until he's not the president of Nigeria and also a presidential candidate, we wont stop complaining when he's wrong. And frankly he makes the job of the opposition all too easy.

debest1:

oh in that case i wish you all the best(not) in your crusade,  And by the way I never said he is above condemnation wherever this is due, my beef is with regards to this issue of demanding to see the questions ahead of the debate. When the [b]man came out to deny it, people slagged him off when he didnt make a statement [/b]na so so insults, just shows when people's mind are made up about you thats it.

zeeleso:

The mistake was from the very beginning. He should not have asked for Expo in the first place. Once the expo-asking has occurred, any following excuse to justify it  or any lame attempt at denying after one month is null and void.

debest1:

^^^ but did he ever ask for expo? Can you prove he did?

na_so:

When people because of their prefered candidates refuse to employ simple logic in their responses, it only explains why as a nation it is always difficult to move forward. Expo in what sense?

na_so:

Who does not know that a presidential debate will largely be about our core issues like : Education,power,health,unemployement,security of lives and property, Niger delta,infrastructural development,poverty alleviation and anti corruption, then if the moderators are sound they could extend to foreign policy. No matter how these questions are coined once you have a sound agenda to address this challenges you will explain in the debates.

It was further gathered that PDP backed out of the television debate because there were no concrete agreements on the nature of questions to be asked and how to admit the studio audience.

debest1:

"The PDP demanded that the advance copy of questions be made available to candidates. It also requested an outright stoppage of the studio audience from posing questions to the[b] candidates[/b]."
Let's assume the allegation is true, PDP wanted the questions to be made available to CANDIDATE(S), plural meaning not just him but all the participants; so how is that expo if all of them had advance knowledge of the questions?

debest1:

^^^is this an exam? It's a debate for goodness sake, asking for subject areas is part and parcel of modern politics, It gives the respondents the opportunity to prepare well ahead. Which would you rather have, a scenario where they waffle without facts or one in which they have adequately prepared and are able to offer articulated, factual responses?

debest1:

^^^i didnt realise an "optional" election debate is now on the same pedestal as an exam.

aletheia:

This debate thing is blown out of proportion by illiteracy and ignorance. Most of those shouting "expo" never debated in their lives. From primary school through university, my involvement in debate teams/societies made me understand you know the topics you are going to debate on beforehand in order to prepare well. You don't just turn up that day without knowledge of the topic of debate. All you GEJ-haters should look for another reason.