His Excellency Atiku Abubakar
and The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party said on Friday
night that he was keenly looking forward to next month's presidential debate,
moments after watching the vice-presidential debate in Abuja.
H.E Abubakar expressed satisfaction with the showing of his
running mate, Peter Obi, at the vice-presidential debate at Transcorp Hilton
Hotels.
"I watched with pride as Peter Obi laid out our vision to
get Nigeria working again," H.E Abubakar said on Twitter, adding that he
cannot "wait for the presidential debate."
Mr Obi sparred with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and three other
running mates in the five-person debate last night, focused mainly on the
economy for about two and a half hours.
Mr Obi was widely praised for
demonstrating a good grasp of statistics, and Mr Osinbajo received
commendations for his ability to focus on what his government had done as
against what the PDP did in its 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015.
Although the debate organizers said last week they expected
President Muhammadu Buhari to participate at the presidential debate on January
19, there has been no commitment from the president.
It was gathered on Friday night
that the organizers have not received indications that Mr. Buhari would take part
in the debate, but said H.E Abubakar's public utterances have given them
confidence that the main opposition candidate would be available
President Buhari did not honour
invitations to debate while running as the main opposition candidate of the All
Progressives Congress in 2015.
Concerns that president Buhari would shun debate again this
cycle prompted some PDP supporters on social media to have Mr Obi boycott last
night's debate. They argued that President Buhari is trying to ride on the
energy of Mr Osinbajo, rather than present himself for a similar debate as the
most consequential person on the ticket.
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