Ahead of the 2023 Presidential and General elections, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has taken a swipe at the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for refusing to honour invitations on debate.
NNPP says that it was an indication that he has nothing to tell Nigerians or he does not have the power to rule the country and if he does not appear for debate, he will surely come for election.
Addressing Journalists on Monday in Abuja, the NNPP National Chairman, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali said that the APC Presidential candidate try and appear for Nigerians to hear him and his blueprint for the country, asking him to come for Debates, say something, even if it will not be clear, people will get something out of him.
According to him, the media should interrogate all the Presidential Candidates as we inch closer to the 2023 Presidential election, adding, that “the NNPP would continue to engage patriotic individuals and organisations that share our vision and mission to rescue Nigeria and save democracy in the country.
“For the avoidance of doubt, our Party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party will not in any way be coerced or blackmailed to fulfill somebody’s inordinate ambition to rule Nigeria by all means.”
Recall that the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar; the NNPP candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso and that of Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi had featured on Sunday Night at a town hall meeting organized by Arise TV, Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, in partnership with Vanguard Newspapers, Premium Times, Daily Trust, Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE and Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ in Abuja, but Tinubu was again absent.
According to him, the NNPP as the Third Force has finally arrived against the backdrop that Nigerians are tired of excuses and the culture of blame games by the APC, adding, “When media organisations, like what happened yesterday, the 4th of Dec 2022.
“Apart from Arise TV, the CDD, highly respectable organisation and virtually all the media organisation in the country, so this is an open forum. It’s very clear. So why can’t you go and talk, say something, even if it’s not clear, people will get something out of you.
“But you preferred to jet out of the country. So this is a different issue. This is not the first time, not the second time, it has been like that. You can assume that most of them do not have the power to rule the country.
“Two, they are also ashamed of what they have done. You can’t call yourself the leader of a party for 8 years and now you want to rule the country, you cannot come and tell Nigerians what you have done during the 8 years.
“You are the leader of the party because, you have, for the first time, in the history of the country, a President is different, and the leader of the party different.
“Now the person who is invited is person who is the leader of the party, come forward, you say no, he is out of the country. So people are waiting for him, if he doesn’t come for debate, he will come for election.”
