The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, has told President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the All Progressives Congress candidate for the poll, that he cannot be represented at next week’s presidential debate by a National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Abubakar spoke against the backdrop of the pronouncement of Tinubu as the leader of the APC campaign for the presidential poll by Buhari.
Buhari had on Monday at the inauguration of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja said Tinubu will lead the campaign so he could focus more on running the country.
Reacting to the development through one of the spokesmen of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Segun Sowunmi, Abubakar said Buhari must not be absent at the presidential debate or send a representative.
He said: “President Buhari has only attended one campaign, which was the one held in Uyo (Akwa Ibom State capital).
“He is pushing people ahead to campaign for him because his chickens have come home to roost.
“It proves what we’ve been trying to say before that Buhari doesn’t have the energy and rigour to campaign.
“If he is giving someone else the task of leading his campaign, he could have as well given his presidential ticket to someone who has the energy.
“He should not use this as an excuse to be absent from the presidential debate.
“Nigerians want someone they can question and someone who is willing to listen to them.
“So, he (Buhari) should take charge of his own campaign.
“His excuse that he doesn’t want governance to suffer is not tenable.
“In the United States, United Kingdom, France and other great countries, campaign is part of governance because it is an avenue to interact with your people.
“Hence, Buhari should not hand over his campaign to someone else.
“In the first place, if he had organised the system to be running smoothly, he would not have given this excuse.”
