Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on Thursday expressed concern that the country was yet to witness any presidential debate, barely eight weeks to the general elections in April.

Fashola, who spoke at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos shortly after arriving from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu, where he went to deliver a convocation lecture, said that the nation could only enjoy dividends of democracy with better democratic processes.

He said, “I am surprised that even as we speak, there is no information that there will be a Presidential debate and we are going to elect a president in the next few weeks. Democracy is concerned only about whether the candidate has been picked by popular choice, by popular votes. Democracy does not assure that different candidates know what to do about security; it does not assure that a candidate knows what to do about electricity, or indeed about transportation or health care.

“It is only processes built within the democratic process like debate that enable the best of the best of the candidates to emerge. This is what is done in universities, like Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge for prime ministerial and gubernatorial elections in the two oldest democracies in the West.”

Earlier at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka 40th convocation lecture, Fashola who was the guest speaker, urged the UNN to adopt such debates as being organised by Harvard University in the United States and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Fashola said that it was “through these debates that the electorates test the knowledge of the man who wants the custody of your future.”

He said, “We need to be told what the aspiring president has in stock for the community and what the aspiring vice president has to contribute to the success of the president.”

The Lagos State governor said presidential debates by universities seen as citadels of knowledge was necessary because according to him, “Nigeria’s past leaders have failed the nation in all ramifications.”

Presidential debates, he explained, would also afford the electorates the opportunity to testing the sincerity of those who claim to be aspiring to better the lot of the society, the economy and other problems being faced by the poor masses.

He expressed worry that what are being produced in Nigeria are graduates in the areas where the economy makes no demand for them.

This, he blamed on the unchanged curricula inherited from the colonial masters.

“The inescapable reality is that for so long we have neglected the vital things in our tertiary education. We have left our inherited curricula virtually unchanged. As a result, we have not trained our graduates in tandem with the requirements of our communities,” Fashola said.

On the striking doctors in the state, Fashola, who appealed to the doctors to resume duties, urged them to see themselves as part of the solution to the country’s problems.

The governor, however, said that he would continue to engage the striking doctors until they reason along with him.

He said, “We will continue to engage the doctors, we will continue to appeal to them. This is not a war of who is superior, this is a war of rationality and wisdom and I will say the point they made is not a choice that we do not want to pay, it’s just that we cannot just afford to pay the full sum they are asking us to pay.

“After salaries, we have to buy drugs, power medical equipment that keep the place alive. After all of that, we have to pay security, build roads, schools, water supply, pay for refuse that is being carried away; they are all involved in these processes as well; and not everybody can really have all what it wants,” he said.

Presidential Debate is already proposed:

Please note the following information relative to the proposed presidential debate:
Date: Saturday March 26, 2011
Time: 4 p.m. (local Nigerian time) prompt
Venue: Either the African University of Science and Technology or the University of Abuja Auditorium/Hall

We wholeheartedly welcome your ideas and generous suggestions on the conduct of this presidential debate. We hope you’ll spread the news about our endeavour and get together with other Diaspora Nigerians wherever you reside and organize a debate-viewing-centre,

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