Nigerian Presidential Debates

By Terhemba Osuji
It is amazing that so many people are clamoring for their respective candidates without actually knowing or forming a personal impression about these candidates based on personal or direct experiences with these individuals.
Most people form an opinion about these candidates based on group think and choreographed sound bites, slogans and press releases from and about each of these candidates.
Most of these candidates are often adopted by a small secretive group or a non-democratic caucus who foist these candidates on the party over more qualified politicians to the detriment of the country which ends up with leaders with poor social skills.
So it is quite disappointing that the Two presidential candidates and the country in general have not come up with an iron cast formula to have a series of debates, presidential and others as a mainstay in Nigerian politics.
The failure of the system to demand such debates is indicative of how the country wants to be led - by mysterious politicians who do not pass the communications test before the get elected.
Most people have already made up their minds about who they will vote for, but only through a vigorous debate where the issues are thoroughly articulated and discussed will the electorate really know and appreciate the limitations of their respective candidates.
Some people might claim it does not matter but spend their leisure time comparing our presidential speeches and presentations with those given by the US president.
Over the years Nigeria has evolved from dictatorial governments to a democracy, and in a democracy, decisions are not driven by executive fiat but by intensive negotiations to arrive at a consensus amongst various politicians and groups.
As Nigeria has evolved so has the electorate who are more educated and wired into the news and current events through social media than ever before.
This generation are younger, intellectually curious and ready to challenge old stereotypes about the conduct of national affairs and must be convinced by superior arguments rather than the respect your elder's approach to issuing public decrees that is the norm, otherwise you risk alienating this force of nature.
But old habits die-hard and a seeming majority of Nigerians appear in their desperation for change to want to be ruled by people whose true character and communication skills they really know nothing about.
In the case of General Buhari the electorate will not get a chance to see how he responds to direct and fearless intellectual challenges by technocrats of superior intellect or a rival politician advocating for his constituencies rights or positions in the formulation of national policy.
The country is invariably setting itself up for a government that is unable to get bills through the National Assembly because GMB might not be able to convince the opposition about his policies with his military skills tool kit.
In the case of the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan there are more videos to expose what some might perceive as his glaring deficiencies in communicating his ideas and his leadership bearing, but beyond the sound bites Nigerians are still denied a glimpse of how this PhD intellectually thinks about and articulates his opinions about national affairs. Is he really intuitively in command of the issues or is his problem an issue of not articulating his policies to Nigerians and or vice-versa.
Needless to say is that both candidates might never have become presidential candidates, if they were previously weeded out of the presidential contest through vigorous presidential debates after primary congresses before they are presented to the electorate as the only choices to represent and articulate the position of 160 million Nigerians domestically and internationally.
Terhemba Osuji is a commentator on national affairs.

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