The public space is today dominated with what ordinarily should be routine features of our political contestation; political debates. To the best of my recollection, we have had these debates for a while now even as we are still looking for consistency in this respect. The last one which comes to mind is the Anambra State Gubernatorial debate which was organised by Arise Television. That I recall was a memorable debate even if at some point it deviated and it became personal as name calling undermined the quality of the debate.
It is therefore imperative that for such engagements that boundaries are clearly delineated and firmly enforced. Such debates should be strictly based on issues; an opportunity to ascertain what the individual perceives are the problems and an opportunity to interrogate if what strategy to adopt had been thought through. It should be a golden opportunity to bury any rumours surrounding the candidate as all is allowed to hang out; no holds barred.
What has brought this discussion to the front burner is the recent developments surrounding Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) the Presidential aspirant for APC. He has been invited on several occasions for such dialogue locally but he has not been able to respond to any positively. The received wisdom out there is that he is somehow disjointed with his numerous ad libs when he spoke publicly that it is suspected that he is not up to such debates.
Of course, there are lots of subterfuge which have been deployed to mask the extent of this shortcoming; cognitive impairment. He would not respond to Arise Tv Town Hall invitations because he claims the Station is hostile to him. But he has not availed himself of any such opportunities so far to the best of my knowledge. And so one is left asking why aspire to be President of such a large complex community such as Nigeria, if you cannot publicly respond to questions! It does not make any sense to most compatriots except of course those blinded by crass sentiments.
But what has brought this matter to the boil is the recent Chatham House presentation by BAT. One of my contacts asked pointedly what all this fascination with Chatham House presentations is? He concluded that it is simply a relic of our colonial past. Because come to think of it, discussions of this nature could be followed these days from any part of the world. And as it is; there are not too many eligible voters out there in the diaspora.
But what happened during this event has left most compatriots dumb founded; in deed scratching their heads! BAT made a very brief presentation and then the interactive session. He proceeded to pass on the questions to members of his entourage! Now this is a novel! This bucks the trend. In the first place BAT cannot have a team to advertise in this manner because he is as yet to hold office!
All what he has done amounted to simply renting brains to use and hoodwink the rest of us. How can others speak for him when he was given a platform to showcase his personal views? As President with this showing is he going to be able to address the press? He will redirect questions to others when asked! How is that ever going to work? Who has ever seen such an arrangement anywhere before? Unfortunately some of us are captive to base sentiments. Otherwise the verdict from all these developments should be obvious to all concerned.
The other debate by Arise Tv on Health, Education and poverty alleviation I was able to watch even as there were many distractions as I did so. The Presidential candidates of PDP, NNPC and Labour participated during this debate. It was a well organised interview even though I did not quite like the fact that the same questions were asked. It is like an expo! I have no doubt that this is so to obviate allegations of favouritism. Such a procedure disallowed viewers of the opportunity to thoroughly assess innovative and original thoughts on the part of the participants.
When we talk of pro poor budgeting; we talk of budgets skewed in favour of Education and Health. As was clearly observed by all the participants, these sectors have suffered from inadequate funding over the years. As a country, we have not been able to allocate the minimum budget benchmark as indicated by UNESCO! This realization along with lack of effective expenditures have accounted for the lackluster performance which the Country has recorded so far in this respect. There was consensus that allocations to these sectors would have to be radically beefed up with no efforts spared to make such expenditures effective.
We cannot find policies to alleviate poverty. We can only extend palliative; band aids to cushion the biting consequences of poverty. What improves the quality of life is sustainable growth of the economy. And particularly the maintenance of macroeconomic stability. I was personally intrigued to listen to the Presidential candidate of PDP bemoan the lack of implementation of both the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) as well as the States Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (SEEDS) as one of the reasons we have reaped stunted growth and development. I could not agree more as someone who participated in the implementation of these programs. I recall that I was privileged to have led the team of consultants that tried to formulate the program for Bayelsa State.
Some important conclusions during this Town Hall engagements are that the Private sector must be accorded its rightful place as the driver and engine room of the economy. All manner of incentives should be offered to sweeten the pie as we ask them to engage. The aspirants were asked to commit to using the medical facilities in the country. They all did but Atiku truthfully answered that he is willing to commit to the extent that available facilities are adequate to meet the needs of some who might require special medical attention. It was also the consensus that the health conditions of aspirants should be made public by advertising certified medical reports. Huuuum! I say that will be the day.
From my keen observation during the interview, some participants looked a bit stressed! There is the need for self counsel in this respect. There will be the need for strategies to space out, recharge before re engagement. We would hate for any contestant to collapse on the campaign trail. We are in support of the debates and wish that this exercise should be entrenched as part of our political selection culture and wish to commend Arise TV for a job well done.
*** Written by Boniface Chizea, an economist, MD/CEO, BIC Consultancy Services
