City Hall Meeting: Again Tinubu Avoids Invitation, Says Organizers Unprofessional and Reckless

All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu has declined an invitation to Arise TV's presidential town hall meeting.

Mr. Tinubu was due to stand in the series of town halls on December 4 alongside Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates Atiku Abubakar, Labor Party (LP), Peter Obi and New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) , Rabiu Kwankwaso.

It will focus on education, health, poverty and human capital development.

However, the APC Presidential Campaign Council, in a statement by its spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said on Friday that it would not attend the event.

Arise is organizing the public meeting in collaboration with the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) and other organizations.

Two editions of the public assembly have so far taken place while the next one will take place on December 4th. Arise TV has partnered with PREMIUM TIMES in one of the series.

Mr. Tinubu had declined an invitation to the first meeting on security and the economy which was held on November 6. He said the debate was at odds with his campaign schedule.

He was replaced by Kola Abiola, the candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party. PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar was represented by his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.

You cannot follow our program by train – Onanuga

In the statement, Mr. Onanuga accused the organizers of not being professional in not consulting them.

Mr. Onanuga said the campaign plans to maintain "the direct engagement approach" by holding its own meetings with relevant bodies.

"Our attention was drawn to an advertisement by Arise News in relation to a town hall meeting scheduled for December 4.

"We are surprised that the television channel listed our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among the participants, when there was no prior consultation with him and his collaborators and no consent from the candidate was only obtained for publicity.

"We view this as professionally wrong and reckless. No media organization should arrogate to itself the right to force any candidate to enroll in its own program," he said.

Mr. Onanuga reiterated that the busy campaign of the APC candidate would not allow him to honor all the invitations from the various organizations.

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"As we said in a previous statement, Asiwaju Tinubu's busy and hectic campaign schedules will not allow him to honor all the invitations from various radio and television stations for debates and/or meetings at City Hall, hence our decision not to start with one media organization and later ignore the others. In the absence of a unified and mutually agreeable platform for all parties and all candidates, our candidate has spoken directly to Nigerians, ever since President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Tinubu Action Plan for a Better Nigeria.

“To date, more than seven public meetings with strategic sectors have been organized in geopolitical areas, where the candidate and his running mate have spoken about their programs.

"These direct engagements will continue ahead of the February 25, 2023 elections.

"We therefore urge Arise News to immediately cease using our candidate's name or likeness in its advertising," he said.

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