OPINION: Perspective On Presidential Debates

BY BAMIDELE JOHNSON

Presidential debates in places where rigour is valued are great. They provide a window into the minds of those seeking to be president and could have some effect on how things turn out.

Here? I think they’re just to make us yell like barbarians parading the heads of freshly slain rivals.

Rigour, in general, is not our thing and I don’t believe that the debates change anything.

Pre-debate, our favourite candidate would have been awarded the gold medal even if he stank the place out with fluency in gibberish and excellence garbage. Presidential debates, in theory, allows us to forensically scan manifestos, to which politicians are neither aligned nor committed because they bought them off the shelf of some policy wonk.

As seductive as they are as a tool of gauging alignment with stated programme objectives, they change nothing in the domestic political game. We are more interested in other things, namely religion and ethnicity. I doubt if the greatest number of voters watch. I also doubt if such voters have the capacity to understand the high-sounding, big-talking guff to which our politicians are given. Just imagine Ayade in a presidential debate.

Still, I’m for debates. They generate premium entertainment. That is all.

But class action? How Dr. Ezekwesili got seized by this idea eludes me. What existing law (Constitution or Electoral Act) would the courts say has been broken by not debating? What body is the legally or INEC-recognised group with the mandate to organize debates? There’s a chance I’m talking tripe as I often do, but there’s also a chance that Doc is generating what we know Olusosun for: garbage.

• Bamidele Johnson a noted public analyst wrote in from Lagos.

                Briefly…

So Far Not Inspiring

Town hall meetings and all it is all very lacking in depth. For a country in focal straits what we have seen so far reveals a hesitancy about taking on the issues.

The aforethought excuse Is that “you campaign in prose and govern in poetry”. This is an opportunist position

The astute analyst Bamidele Johnson has laid it bare however he was too guarded and did not emphasise that whoever wins the presidential is taking over a poisoned chalice. In a difficult more is to be expected such as detailed costed policy options. There is very little to be optimistic about. Sad.

– Kanmi Ademiluyi