Last weekend’s presidential debate, in which both President Muhammadu Buhari and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, were absent had generated intense debate on the rationale behind the actions of both candidates, leaving the turf still uneasy. The debate controversy, unfortunately, pointed to quite many things ahead of the February 16 polls.
First, the truth of the matter is that the presidential election of February 16 is a contest between Buhari and Atiku and thus, any other contestant is just a spectator in another form as Nigeria’s presidential race has always been a two-horse concern.
Therefore, if Buhari was not available, Atiku’s participation in the exercise would have amounted to a sheer waste of time as the man against whose record he would be accessed was not available. His decision to walk away was spot-on and in sync with strategy and good thinking. The outraged audience would not even vote any of the other candidates to start with and at the end of the day, it would be all about politics and who is able to think faster and ahead.
