Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party candidate Peter Obi are set to attend ‘The Candidates’ presidential town hall series.
The town hall series will commence on 17th November, 2022 and will be live on NTA, FRCN, Radio Now, DSTV, YouTube, Facebook, and more.
The town hall series is organised by Daria Media Concept, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, NTA, and YouTube. It will be a two-hour live televised town hall meeting series, of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the six leading political parties. These parties were selected using a combination of editorial judgement, aggregated polls by the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, occupation of elective offices, and presence across the country.
In a statement yesterday, the Africa director of the MacArthur Foundation, Kole Shettima said, “The foundation is privileged to support an opportunity for Nigerians to interact with the leading presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections.”
The Candidates’ Presidential town hall will take place as follows: Prince Adewole Adebayo and running mate, Yusuf Buhari, of the Social Democratic Party – 17th November, 2022.
Mr. Omoyele Sowore and running mate, Barrister Haruna Garba Magashi, of the African Action Congress Party –18th November, 2022. Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and running mate, Bishop Isaac Idahosa, of the New Nigeria Peoples Party -19th November, 2022.
Mr. Peter Obi and running mate, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, of the Labour Party – 21st November 2022 Atiku Abubakar and running mate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party – 22nd November, 2022. Tinubu and running mate, Sen. Shettima Kashim of the APC – 23rd November 2022.
Kadaria Ahmed, a Nigerian broadcaster and journalist, will moderate each town hall. She has been moderating Presidential Debates and town halls since the 2011 elections.
CEO of Cabal Entertainment and executive producer of The Candidates, Obi Asika, said, “I am hugely excited to be working with Kadaria Ahmed, one of Nigeria’s most distinguished journalists and broadcasters with a long and impressive track record in print, Tv, and radio.
“We hope to deliver a town hall series that will make all Nigerians proud regardless of which candidate they support and we want to enable the best possible platform for all the leading candidates to come and share their best plans for Nigeria with Nigerians.”
According to him, the candidates will be a live streaming and live broadcast production, providing a unique platform for direct interaction between the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the leading political parties in Nigeria and her citizens.
“In the Candidates Presidential Townhall series, we are delivering six presidential town halls and seven pundit shows with leading national commentators hosting these conversations before each town hall. Each
edition of the series also has six remote locations in Nigerian
universities with live interactive audiences in Maiduguri, Enugu,
Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano & Abuja who will be part of the live town
hall series.
“There will be an audience of 100 people for each town hall, including
CSOs and the Diplomatic Corps, It will be an opportunity for Nigerians to hear directly from the aspirants and to ask them questions on governance and nation-building. The Candidates has partnered with Zikoko Citizen to distill the conversation for the young, social media engaged audience, and with Africa Fact Check to ensure accuracy and accountability,” he said.
