₦airaland Forum

The ACN candidate, Nuhu Ribadu has bowed out of the Presidential race in favour of the CPC candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd).
ARTICLE | APRIL 12, 2011 - 8:38PM | BY CHIDI OKOYE

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate, Nuhu Ribadu has bowed out of the Presidential race in favour of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd).

To be up front, I am NOT going to be voting for any PDP candidate in the coming elections. I am of the opinion that their party has done a lot of damage to Nigeria in the last decade.

However, watching last Friday's NN24 Presidential debate, I was reminded that democracy is all about choice. The debate itself was excellently moderated by 234NEXT's Kadaria Ahmed, my former boss, and it left me wondering about my earlier criticisms of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) candidate, Ibrahim Shekarau. At the start of the debate, I was disappointed in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate's response to the first question thrown at him, about his relationship with the party's head-honcho, Bola Tinubu. But to his credit, Nuhu Ribadu recovered quite well. General Muhammadu Buhari is not as articulate as either of the other two debaters, but you could see that he has a passion on a level that neither of the other two have. And maybe in a democracy that is not good.

You see, democracy by its very nature involves some horse-trading, something I do no think that Buhari is quite capable of. But then I digress,

I must throw in what Timothy Igbinosun, a childhood friend of mine remarked. He said, "Try not to ask the questions in a perfect circle. You will keep catching the first person unawares giving the opponent time to think, analyse the question and jot down responses. Buhari answered majority of questions on impulse (besides the fact that he is not such a good public speaker.) Ribadu picks the rebound from the General's stutter, and Shekarau buries the case smoothly (on top of being a great orator!) So for each question, start with someone new and alternate accordingly."