Barely six days to the presidential debate, there is disagreement between President Goodluck Jonathan and three other presidential candidates over the mode of the debate.

The others are Mallam Nuhu Ribadu (Action Congress of Nigeria); Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Congress for Progressive Change); and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau (All Nigeria Peoples Party).

Television station NN24 in conjunction with about 30 international stations, is organising the live debate for the four top runners. There are 17 other candidates running for President in the April 9 poll.

The order of the debate as arranged is as follows: First Presidential debate (March ; Vice-Presidential debate (March 11); and Second Presidential debate (March 18).

In preparation for the debate, the management of the TV station and the collaborators met with representatives of the four candidates last Tuesday.

Those who attended the meeting were Dr. Doyin Okupe (PDP); Mr Yinka Odumakin (CPC); Mr Ibrahim Modibbo (ACN); and Mallam Sule Yau Sule (ANPP)

But the pre-debate session was stalemated following Jonathan camp’s two-point demands.

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 candidates.

It was learnt that representatives of Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau, however, insisted on an open debate without inhibitions.

It was gathered that when the stalemate could not be resolved, the meeting was shifted till yesterday to find solutions to grey areas.

But when the session reconvened, the representative of the PDP candidate was absent.

A top source said: “All the four candidates are sticking to their positions and this irreconcilable challenge is a threat to the debate.

“I think there is that suspicion that the opposition is trying to use the debate to embarrass the President on key economic issues like the 60-40% ratio of recurrent and capital allocations; excess crude account; and foreign reserves.

“The way some of the candidates have been passionate about the state of the economy is a worry to the Jonathan camp.

“They are also suspecting that the audience might be skewed in favour of the opposition candidates.”

Another source at the session said: “We won’t allow any candidate to have prepared questions and later come to the session with a teleprompter.

“What we are demanding is that Nigerians and the world should assess the presidential candidates based on their natural endowments.

“We will rather cancel the debate than bend the rules for one of the candidates.”

But a source in the Jonathan camp said: “The manner in which some representatives of the other candidates were behaving at the pre-debate meeting showed clearly that they are up to mischief.

“Mr. President has nothing to hide and he is not afraid of debate but he won’t be a party to mischief.

An official of the Shekarau campaign organisation said last night that the ANPP candidate’s team will speak on the debate tomorrow.