DEBORAH TOLU-KOLAWOLE writes on the struggle of Nigeria’s presidential candidates to visit the Chatham House, London, where they have been speaking about their missions and visions
In 2015, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari , who was then the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, went to sell his candidacy at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London.
In 2018, the then presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar also visited the London centre to convince the international community on why he should succeed the incumbent president, Buhari, of the APC. Though Atiku lost the presidential elections, he made good use of the opportunity to sell his candidacy.
According to former spokesperson to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, Nigerian politicians have turned opportunities to speak in Chatham House into “badges of honour”. Tinubu was heavily criticised by commentators at home and abroad. On January 16, 2022, it was the turn of Mr Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party to address the subject: ‘Nigeria’s 2023 Election: A Vision for Policy Change and Institutional Reforms’.
“Alex Vines, director of Africa Programme at the Institute has however confirmed that Atiku has been invited, but he is yet to respond to the invitation. He probably would honour the invitation before the elections proper, so he and his aides are not left out of the Chatham House jamboree,” Abati noted in the article titled, “The Chatham house effect.”Prior to this, the former governor of Lagos State had shunned several engagements with the media and other civic organisations back home.
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