Senate moves to make debates compulsory for presidential, governorship candidates

A bill seeking to make debates for Presidential and Governorship candidates of major political parties compulsory ahead of the 2019 elections passed into second reading ‎in the Senate on Wednesday.
‎The ‎bill, tagged: “Nigerian Political Debates Commission Bill, 2015,” was sponsored by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari.‎
In his lead debate,‎‎ Senator Buhari informed the lawmakers that the intent of the bill is to give legal teeth for the establishment of a commission with responsibility to organise and conduct debates for all the candidates cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission for governorship and pesidential elections in 2019.
Buhari said: “The bill, if considered and passed by this hallowed Chamber, will strengthen our democracy and bring it in conformity with practice in other renowned democracy of the world.”
He informed his colleagues that since 1960, the practice in the United States of America is that ‎‎candidates of major political parties going into elections must engage in debate .
According to him, the debate is the de facto election process in the United States, upon which chances of candidates in such elections are measured, adding: “An analogous experience of this crucial indispensability of electoral debate is the current presidential debate between Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party and Donald Trump of the Republican party.”
Buhari stated further that the election debate bill, if passed into law, will be used to sample the candidates’ knowledge on a wide range of issues, like a detailed analysis of how they intend to drive economy, foreign, health and education policies among others, adding that anybody whoever desires to be a governor or president should be confident enough to lay a detailed analysis of his or her plans before the electorate.
According to him, it will offer the electorates the avenue to evaluate candidates and vote along ideological lines rather than on ethnic or religious allegiance as it is prevailing in the country today.
Speaking in support of the bill, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha said the bill was long overdue because it has been embarrassing for Nigerian electorates over the years to be electing presidents upon presidents without having a platform of interfacing with them one what and what programmes they have in stock for the country.
“This bill is surely a welcome development for Nigerian electorates as far as the proposed debates are concerned,” Bwacha said.
Also in his contribution in support of the bill, Senator Shehu Sani said the planned mandatory debates for presidential and gubernatorial candidates of major political parties before election would help in exposing those deficient intellectually in political discourse.
After intensive debate on the bill, it was passed ‎into‎ second reading and referred to the Senate Committees on Establishment and Public Service in collaboration with the one on Independent National Electoral Commission for more legislative inputs.‎