Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for president, has come under fire from Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant to PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar on Public Communications, for consistently avoiding direct media interactions and public debates with rivals.
In a statement on Monday, Shaibu said that Tinubu is too shy to respond to questions on his own and that his handlers cannot rely on him to do so, which is why they decided to keep him out of the public eye and the media.
The APC candidate’s latest decision to skip the debate hosted by Arise TV in association with the Centre for Development and Democracy (CDD) on Sunday at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja was the backdrop against which Atiku’s assistant spoke.
Post Nigeria recalls that Tinubu neither attended the debate organized by AriseTV nor did he send a representative.
In Shaibu’s words:
You can run, but not hide’, Shaibu said: “Conscience is an open wound only the truth can heal, says the great Usman Dan Fodio. Unfortunately, when a person’s persona is built on a lie, then such a person’s conscience will continually haunt him, forcing him to exhibit paranoia even when no one is chasing him.
“Since then, Tinubu has continued to avoid public scrutiny or elaborate media interviews where he can answer questions about his source of wealth and his background. Now that he is seeking the highest office in the land, Tinubu has made it clear that he will not attend media interviews or debates. In other words, he wants automatic job employment without an interview.
“What an irony, given that this is a man who claims to have the mental capacity to transform Nigeria. It is more worrisome coming just a few days after the Youth Leader of the APC, Dayo Israel, said whether Nigerians like it or not, Tinubu will be the next President. Perhaps, he seeks to become President through the backdoor.
“On the surface, it may appear as arrogance but it is much deeper and more sinister. This is a clear attempt by a man to defraud over 200 million people and is asking them not to interrogate him.
“Since emerging as the Presidential candidate of the party in early June, Tinubu has not shared a stage with any of the candidates. He was absent from the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), he was absent from the Peace Accord signing, he failed to attend the conference by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and recently, he did not deem it fit to grace the Arise Town hall meeting even though he was in Abuja.
