The road to Buhari’s absenteeism
The absence of President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Debate last night did not take many Nigerians by surprise. In fact, what would have made big headline news would have been his presence. For so long, there have been speculations that the President would not make it. In what appeared to be an ambush, Buhari had recently inaugurated his campaign council, naming a former governor of Lagos State, and a national leader of the party, as the co-chairman of the council.
The President had explained that he would not sacrifice governance on the altar of politics.
“But I must also add that, though we will all be deeply involved, I would like to assure the nation that I will do my part without making governance or my work suffer. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, my co-chairman, will be fully in charge and is going to be on 24-hour vigil,” he had said.
“That is to say, the operational buck of this campaign stops at his table and I therefore urge all of us in the leadership of this campaign, in the field operations on the campaign trail and in the secretariat to consult with Asiwaju whenever guidance is needed,” he further said.
Two weeks ago, the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, had said that his principal had not yet reached a decision regarding participating in the presidential debate.
Recall that the President had also shunned the presidential debate in 2015. He however, went ahead to win the presidential election.