Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed have released their 2023 Presidential Manifesto for Nigeria: “Our Pact with Nigerians: Creating a New Nigeria” [pdf]. It is a nice document, just like others released by the PDP and the APC candidates, respectively Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu. It is a 72-page document with seven core priorities (see below).
Now, the campaign 2.0 has started. From Obi, Atiku and Tinubu, we have received the vision documents. The next phase is to ask questions on executions of these documents. And that is why we need Debates.
I understand that some of the candidates do not want to debate because debates are not enshrined in the constitution of Nigeria. There is no problem: I am available to come with a blackboard for them to teach. I will give each of these men a chalk and ask them to draw a flowchart on how to fix some issues in the nation. Execution and implementation are important since Nigeria has always been presented with nice manifestos which are usually abandoned after elections, from the local government to the federal levels.
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In engineering PhD programs, there is what is called the GBO Exam where you walk into a room with 7 professors waiting to drill you. They can ask you questions on any topic. In most top PhD engineering programs, more than 50% drop at this phase. Why? There is nothing to prepare and that means you must “have it” to scale through. Nigeria, can we get these men to pass through real tests.
Sample Questions
Question 1: Mr. Atiku, draw a flowchart on how to fix a problem where a kid in Abia State needs to score 130 to be admitted into a government school another kid from Yobe needs just 2! Your execution cannot exceed ten years.
Question 2: Mr Obi, opportunities are harder these days in Nigeria partly due to insecurity and inadequate electricity. Share on a flowchart what needs to happen to realize your priority #1 “To secure Nigeria, end banditry and insurgency” and #5 “Build expansive and world-class infrastructure for efficient power supply”. Your flowchart should include how youth unemployment will be fixed. Also indicate how you plan to overcome previous failures on these domains.
Question 3: Mr. Tinubu, rural Nigeria has been cut-off from urban Nigeria with the collapse of NIPOST and decent road networks. Draw a flowchart how we can boost the economy of rural Nigeria and connect it to the urban by revitalizing the postal system and supply chain. Sir: your flowchart should include how to fix NIPOST to work again in 3 years.
Obi 7 priorities:
- To secure Nigeria, end banditry and insurgency, and unite our dear nation, to manage our diversity such that no one is left behind.
- Shift emphasis from consumption to production by running a production-centered economy that is driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented industrialization.
- Restructure the polity through effective legal and institutional reforms to entrench the rule of law, aggressively fight corruption, reduce cost of governance, and establish an honest and efficient
civil service. - Leapfrog Nigeria into the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), through the application of scientific and technological innovations to create a digital economy.
- Build expansive and world-class infrastructure for efficient power supply, rail, road and air transportation, and pipeline network, through integrated public-private partnerships, and entrepreneurial public sector governance.
- Enhance the human capital of Nigerian youths for productivity and global competitiveness through investment in world-class scholarship and research, quality healthcare, and entrepreneurship education.
- Conduct an afro-centric diplomacy that protects the rights of Nigerian citizens abroad and advances the economic interests of Nigerians and Nigerian businesses in a changing world.
People, let us have these flowchart debates on NTA, AriseTV, etc LIVE. It will be fun. I do not care what is written in manifestos; I want to interrogate the aspirants as that is the living manifesto. How many blackboards do we order in case the one I have is not enough to contain all their answers?
Comment on Feed
Comment: Prof, Even the US has not reached this level of debate 
for it’s presidential candidates. May the free volition of the majority prevail!
My Response: That is actually my goal. US politics is matured. A Republican candidate has an agenda he will follow. The same for democrats. But in Nigeria, we have no party, we have just humans. Obi was Atiku’s running mate just 4 years ago. Tinubu battled Atiku in 2015 with Buhari. In other words, there is no party in Nigeria, what we have is a club. With that, you need to focus on the human element and ignore the party since all the parties in Nigeria are the same (no core ideological differences).
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Honesty is in short supply in Nigeria, so it makes advocating for a good society a lot harder. This is a country of talkers and not readers, yet in a critical election such as this, some gangs now believe that it’s no longer necessary to talk and debate things, rather you just dump a document on a population that barely read, and no evidence to show that the principals even understand the contents of the said documents. You cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep, and that is what you get from many Nigerians today.
Debate is never about oratorical prowess, even when you listen to a stammerer that knows and has the capacity to execute what he’s struggling to convey, you will still understand. But when one starts asking whether winning elections is dependent on debates, you know that there’s problem, because winning elections is not for winning sake, governance must come after.
Again, the largely uneducated Nigerians make their electoral choices based on what they are told by their educated counterparts, so where does the argument of ‘most Nigerians don’t watch debates’ sit? People model behaviours, all the people that influence voting choices can watch debates and ask questions, but we are denying the obvious.