You may be wondering why Presidential aspirant, Sowore, is absent from the ongoing Presidential debate where 3 candidates excluding Buhari and Atiku are selling themselves to Nigerians.
NEDG Executive Secretary, Eddie Emesiri, had stated that the number of participants was reduced to five in order to ensure that the debates are effectively managed.
He further explained that the decision to exclude some parties was not influenced as has been alleged in certain quarters, stressing that the multi-stage selection process was transparent and independent.
The statement read,
“The choice of participating parties for the debate was made through an independently administered multi-stage process. The first stage was an independent online poll and the second involved the distribution of survey questionnaires per state, to professionals, artisans, students, etc; respondents were within the voting age and spread across urban, semi-urban and rural classifications. The third stage was to take an aggregate of the stage result and extend invitations to the top 5 parties for the debate.
“Following our disclosure of the participating parties earlier in the week, our attention has been drawn to some reactions in the public space over the decision to limit the participation to five parties and exclusion of some party flag bearers from the debate.
“Considering the vast number of contending parties, the decision to limit to five parties was taken at the beginning of our process to ensure ease of management for the debates. All the stages of the selection process were focused on political parties, taking into consideration the importance of national spread and diversity. Focus was not on specific individuals or candidates.
“We wish to emphatically state that the NEDG and BON were not influenced or induced by anyone to include or exclude any political party from the debate. We understand the disappointment of some political parties who would have wished to see their candidates share their visions for the country at the Debates. However, Nigerians have spoken through the multi-stage process and we urge all Nigerians to respect their choice as we abide by the outcome of the independent party selection process.”
See photos of his protesters at the venue belowww….
