The Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Akwa Ibom State Council has unveiled its official hashtag for the 2023 governorship debate (#AKSGOVDEBATE2023), the official Facebook page (Akwa Ibom Governorship Debate 2023), a google sheet for questions to be sent to question bank (http://bitly.ws/wNli) and the official email address ([email protected]) ahead of the general elections in the state.
The chairman of the Political Committee of NUJ, Comrade Aniekan Udofia in a press conference held at the council secretariat, said no candidate would be allowed to send a surrogate or mandate people who may accompany them to the debate to answer questions on their behalf as such does not show any sign of responsibility or commitment on the part of the candidate.
Udofia, whose committee is facilitating the debate, explained that out of the 18 registered political parties, only six indicated interest to participate in the debate saying that the committee will administer an oath of allegiance to the candidates to abide by the rules of the debate.
The political parties that will participate in the debate, according to him, include African Alliance Congress, AAC, African Democratic Congress, ADC, Young Progressives Party, YPP, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, All Progressives Congress, APC and New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP.
He confirmed that the debate, which will hold on Sunday, 29 January 2023, at Ibom Icon Hotels and Golf Resort by 4 pm, will be broadcast live on 11 radio stations and six television stations and also streamed live on several social media platforms for the people to hear firsthand the plans the invited governorship candidates have for the state.
Udofia further explained that the in-house audience shall remain inactive and only send in their questions to the question bank where their moderators would harmonize them.
While promising to provide a level playing field for all the participants, he noted that the committee will never request or receive financial aid from the candidates to avoid any form of favouritism.
Any candidate who is not qualified by law would not appear in the debate as the committee was not ready to act ultra vires, he affirmed.
His words: “No candidate will be allowed to send a representative; if a candidate sends a representative, that representative will not be allowed to go to the podium. We will not allow surrogates or people to answer questions for someone. All the questions will be similar. We took the resolution because answering questions for a candidate does not show a sign of commitment or responsibility on [the part of] whoever is coming to rule.”
He said further: “The in-house audience will be inactive; they are not going to ask questions on the day of the debate. We are going to allow our partners to nominate their representatives to form the audience who must sit before 4 pm.
“This committee has not and will not receive a dime from any political party or candidate. In the letter to the candidates, there is a part written in bold that this committee will not receive any financial assistance from you to appear before the debate. We don’t want to politicize this event that is already political.”
In his remarks, the chairman of NUJ, Akwa Ibom State Council, Comrade Amos Etuk, said the debate was organised to give the people the opportunity to listen to the candidates and make an informed choice.
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