[b]Our dear Mr Goodluck has given the reason he couldn't attend the debate.He will probably debate with Dele Momodu and Chris Okotie[/b]President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday adduced reason he did not participate in the presidential debate organised by the NN24, a channel on DSTV. The debate held, in Abuja yesterday.
In a statement by the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation, signed by Mr. Ide Eguabor, director of media/publicity, the president said that he opted out of the debate because he had accepted to attend the one organized by the Nigerian Election Debate Group (NEDG), an amalgamation of the Nigeria’s mass media, the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), the Nigeria Bar Association, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), market women and other civil society groups, which has been organising the presidential debate series since 1999.

The campaign organization said that with what the NEDG has done, over the years, in organizing presidential debate, it “does not believe that this relevant and credible body, made up of Nigerians and who will moderate a presidential debate watched by Nigerians on all television and radio stations nationwide should be jettisoned for any other one on the eve of crucial national elections.”

While expressing regrets that he could not attend the NN24 presidential debate, the group said that Jonathan, “who has a carefully drawn out schedule leading up to the elections will not be able to cancel any of his appointments now to attend to a debate that is only the result of a fresh application.”
The statement said: “The Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation has watched with utter consternation, efforts by some individuals and groups to feed the Nigerian public with inaccurate and distorted information to suit their selfish ends.

“A presidential debate to be organised by the management of NN24, a subscriber to Multichoice’s DSTV cable, is deliberately being heated up by those who now see what the president will do or will not do as an opportunity for political capital.
“The truth of the matter is that several applications from various groups, including that of NN24, have reached the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation seeking to organise the presidential debate, preparatory to the April general elections.

“The campaign organization sent its officials to sit as observers at some of the meetings called to deliberate on modalities. However, after a thorough examination of the reports of its observers to these meetings, a collective decision was taken to retain the body that had organized presidential debates since 1999 and has performed creditably well and so, saw no need to discard the platform and template for another.

“The fact is that, the Nigerian Election Debate Group (NEDG), organisers of the presidential debate series, is an amalgamation of the Nigeria’s mass media, print and electronic, the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), the Nigeria Bar Association, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), market women and other civil society groups.
“The Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation does not believe that this relevant and credible body, made up of Nigerians and who will moderate a presidential debate watched by Nigerians on all television and radio stations nationwide should be jettisoned for any other on the eve of crucial national elections.
“Furthermore, President Goodluck Jonathan who has a carefully drawn out schedule leading up to the elections will not be able to cancel any of his appointments now to attend to a debate that is only the result of a fresh application.
“Having only just concluded his tour of the 36 states of Nigeria, President Jonathan has a hectic schedule ahead before the grand finale of the state campaigns at Abuja on March 26, 2011.
“The Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation regrets that President Goodluck Jonathan will unavoidably be unable to attend the debate organised by NN24.

And regrets will forever be your portion.

EGBON Dele Momodu is still in the race. Interesting.

The debate would be great.

This guy will always come up with an excuses after failing to do the right thing ab initio. After ima niboro and oronto douglass who are both his aids ve gone on air to give conflicting reports abt y gej will nt participate in d above debate. Does it mean d presidency is made up of independent distorted information aids who are at liberty to give conflicting reports to the public all claming to be speaking from presidential directives. Within d space of 1wk we hard several reasons frm d presidency y uncle jo wnt be a part of NN24 debate, dfrnt reasons for one issue from same source-PRESIDENCY. Who is realy saddle with the responsibility to speak for the president/presidency to the public? Bunch of confused group who cant even atticulate a common and united lies to tell the public. This is y some of us refer to gej as a clueless guy of which he keeps proving us right with his deeds. Let them also come up with conflicting reports from the presidency on gej was able to avail himslf for koko master larry dbanj king live show on stv and y he considers dat show more important to a debate were he wld be opportune to meet one on one with d un-PhD Malams and lecture them on what his achivements so far and what he intends to do 4d nxt 4yrs but he ran away & told us he was too busy bt had time to tongolo with the koko master. Pdp and everything in it is nothing but FRAUD & RETROGRESION. Pls vote wisely or else u ve got another 4yrs of pains to go tru if u waste ur vote on pdp.

Sometimes i just think these guys think we are fools. What does the GEJ mean by,
“The Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation does not believe that this relevant and credible body, made up of Nigerians and who will moderate a presidential debate watched by Nigerians on all television and radio stations nationwide should be jettisoned for any other on the eve of crucial national elections?

Does it mean any other group in the country can not organise a credible debate? We are not fools, we understand GEJ. He prefers to participate in an arranged debate where he would not come face to face with the major contenders, a debate that will bring together 19 candidates! for different days in groups of maybe four such that at the end of the day, the electorate will eventually pass the debates as meaningless. By the way the so called NEDG appears to be more of a medium for the ruling party to control a sensitive area of campaigns; election debates.


This goes on to show the kind of leadership to expect if GEJ becomes President. He will simply stick with the status quo. Or else, how do we explain that the incumbent President refused to participate in a credible debate because it was not organised by NEDG? Simply keeping faith with the way things are!

The fact remains that we need leaders that go beyond rhetorics of not having shoes to wear to school and the likes, what Nigerians really want is a courageous leader who can stop the nonesense the PDP has subjected Nigerians to in the past 12 years. Leaders who are ready to honestly empathise with the people by ensuring that students of today actually have shoes to go to school!!

Guys!
I am sure GEJ has been INDOCTRINATED/INITIATED into the PDP cult I used to be his admirer until late, From celebrating Bode George, name calling on South west leaders, conflicting reports from his aids,, I think he's been caught in that PDP web, am am sure my vote will be guided conciously no mater who becomes victorious at the end.

i think u guys should hold u guns and insultive words on d president, when its time for a well organized debate n by d right people, u will c him there , on whos behalf is NN24 is org d debate? dont 4get dat it belongs 2 a prominent politician in d west. cont

boluski:

i think u guys should hold u guns and insultive words on d president, when its time for a well organized debate n by d right people, u will c him there  , on whos behalf is NN24 is org d debate? dont 4get dat it belongs 2 a prominent politician in d west. cont

Wat do u mean

Gej is a sitting president he cannot attend any debate organized by a private body other than NTA.

BUT HE WILL STILL APPEAR TO THE DEBATE IN DUE CAUSE.

MR PRESIDENT TAKES TIME FOR EVERY MOVEMENT HE MADE TODAY DUE TO THE RESORT OF THE OPPOSITION TO BOMB AS ONE OF THERE CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES.

SO HE WILL ATTEND NTA DEBATE .

IS DEBATE OUR PROBLEMS?
WILL DEBATE MOVE NIGERIA FORWARD.






GOODLUCK ALL THE WAY.
GOODLUCK NAIRALAND GOODLUCK NAIJA.

@ boluski - Maybe you don't understand. Any Presidential debate should be seen as an avenue for the President to sell himself, it doe not matter who is organising it. It's a live broadcast and people are watching, so what is he afraid of?

Don't let this people fool you. Think about this question?

What really is a credible debate?  Is it one where the organisers are your friends and they have chosen to invite 19 candidates and will rather pitch you against less credible candidates? The debate of the NEDG planned for the end of the month is a waste because all over the world, you organise debates and pitch the front runners against themselves, not by arranging for 19 candidates over a three day period!

Secondly, debates all over the world are not done once. In the US for example, there are multiple debates organised by different organisations.

For the President not to attend a debate because it was not organised by a particular group irrespective of how big the organisation is tells you the kind of person he is - he goes with the crowd even if the crowd is not effective. If we my ask, how effective is a debate that spans three days and pitches 19 candidates against themselves? how am I supposed to compare all the candidates?

I think they have a plan for the NEDG debate. GEJ has disappointed a lot of people but then it's not the first time in the last couple of months

if you dont know let me inform you , that bomb you guys brought at the debate will explode please watch and he will attend on the 29th of march the debate organized by nta the largest network in the continent.

where are our minds? 19 presidential candidates spanning 3days! who will be paired against who? PDP,PPN,APS one day, ANPP,NAP,FP another, CPC, NCP,AP same day and ACN,ACPN,PDC another? and possibly GEJ having the ''prototype'' questions days before the debate, is that the NIGERIA we want?
Well, the day is fast coming am sure my GEN SET will be in shape for the day. But if the pairing of candidates turns out to be a ''respecter'' of persons, then I can still watch EURO NEWS.
News from home is somewhat not interesting