The spokesman for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, has listed the terms under which his party presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would engage his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, in the 2023 election debate.
In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja, Keyamo listed the manifesto as one of the requirements for the debate to take place.
He also challenged Obi to list his “concrete achievements” during his eight-year tenure as governor of Anambra State with those of Tinubu in Lagos.
Keyamo, who is also the Minister of Labour and Employment, asked Obi to list any political party to which he was still a member and which he had either founded alone or with others.
He urged the LP candidate to highlight his role in the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.
He assured that APC would agree to a debate with Obi once the requirements are fulfilled.
Keyamo said: “They have no manifesto, so what are we debating? What documents are we comparing? He said Nigerians should depend on what is inside his brain, not on any document.
“So, Asiwaju will then be debating with what? Is this campaign a joke to them? Do they think this is a Debating and Dramatic Society in school?
“Before Obi can stand shoulder to shoulder with Asiwaju to debate, he should first release a manifesto for scrutiny; then he should list his tangible achievements as Governor of Anambra State compared to the tangible achievements of Asiwaju as Governor of Lagos State.
“Then he should list those he has mentored in politics from the days of his being Governor who is still with him now; then he should tell us any political party he has either formed or partnered to form and which he still belongs to today.
“Then he should list his democratic credentials, that is what he did to contribute to the return to democracy from military rule and what he has since done, better than Asiwaju, to sustain our democracy.
“After all these, we shall send them one of our spokespersons to debate with him.”