The schedule of the much-anticipated Nigerian presidential debate to be organized by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) was finally released on Tuesday. While the vice-presidential debate will hold on the 14th of December, 2018, the Nigerian presidential debate is scheduled for January 19, 2019.

However, the organizers only selected five presidential candidates out of the 71 candidates contesting for the office of the president in the forthcoming election. Obiageli Ezekwesil, Fela Durotoye, Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, and Kingsley Moghalu were the candidates cherry picked. Those who made the selection said popularity and character were the used criteria.

Irrespective of this, the absence of Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), from the presidential debate is fraudulent, undemocratic and against the parameter used by the organizers of the debate. In fact, Omoyele’s exclusion from the debate has put a question mark on the credibility of the debate, the organizers and has caused one to wonder if it was not a premeditated plan, probably sponsored by the very cabal he has openly denounced, to reduce his chances of winning the election.

Based on the popularity and character alibi given by those who excluded Sowore from the debate, he is overqualified to be selected amongst those who will debate in January.

Aside from the fact that, Sowore is involved in Sahara Reporters as the founder, which has earned him popularity amongst millions of Nigerians, the AAC, the party he represents is considered one of the three largest parties in Nigeria. Actually, the party also made it to the top 3 in the Channels TV online poll, organized to determine the candidates that will participate in the presidential debate.

Added to this, Sowore’s involvement in activism and the fight for democracy and good governance since his university days has made him popular amongst Nigerians. Anyone that does not know Sowore has either not been living in Nigeria or has detached himself completely from the mainstream of Nigeria’s news.

He led the Qwenu! presidential poll conducted online a few months ago. Even the Nigerians in the diaspora know Sowore, given how he won the online presidential poll organized by them. He was also the winner of the online presidential poll organized by the European Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria (ECSDN), winning 81.3% of the total votes. If Sowore were not as popular as insinuated by the organizers of the presidential debate, he would not have won these online polls.

With due respect to some of the presidential candidates selected to participate in the presidential debate, Sowore is more popular than them. Apart from Buhari and Atiku, there is no other presidential candidate that is as popular as Sowore, whether at the peripheral or metropolitan level. Therefore, the unpopularity argument of the organizers of the presidential debate is a chimera https://qwenu.com/2018/12/14/matters-arising-the-exclusion-of-omoyele-sowore-from-the-nigerian-presidential-debate/