Nigerians knock Tinubu over attitude at Chatham House discussion

Nigerians have taken to their Twitter handles to knock the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his attitude at the Chatham House conversation on Monday where he parried questions, and instead asked members of his team to answer the questions.

This sparked outrage on social media because Nigerians had long demanded an appearance to hear Tinubu respond to their pressing concerns.

Reacting to the event, Shehu Gazali Sadiq, a Twitter user, wrote, “Tinubu cannot speak for himself. Show of shame.”

Another user, Bwala Daniel stated, “Chatham house show of shame. You want to be the president but avoiding answering questions, instead you are re-directing the answers to El-Rufai, Alake and co. Nigerians want to be governed by a person, not a robot who cannot exercise independent thought in answering questions.”

Frank Zephyr 1, as identified on Twitter, also wrote, “This is so weird and absurd. Why are other people answering the questions of Bola Tinubu? Why is @elrufai answering for BAT? Allow the actual candidate to answer the question na.”

Kelechi Imo, another Twitter user, stated, “A vote for Bola Tinubu is an access to live in bondage. If after seeing the interview of him in Chatham House, you still feel he is the solution to Nigerians’ problems, then, you are the reason we are where we are today!”

Tinubu’s live press meeting coincided with multiple requests from Nigerians for him to attend town hall meetings and live debates in Nigeria with other presidential candidates. And when asked why he had declined speaking with Nigerians using local media, the presidential candidate said, “I see myself as a marketable individual. They want to use me to make money and I said no.”

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Gabriel Dunsworth, a Twitter user, stated, “Tinubu ran away from Nigerian media houses to Chatham House in London to still delegate questions directed at him to Ben Ayade, El-Rufai and co to answer for him. This is an embarrassment to a presidential candidate of any serious country. This fraud needs to be dumped”

“Why can’t Mr Tinubu answer very important questions himself? Why delegate his proxies to answer these questions? Why would a noble organization like yours allow this kind of charade? Is Tinubu going to rule Nigeria with proxies if elected? This is bizarre, to say the least. Shameful,” Hafsatu Danladi noted.

Another user, who identifies as Prettycachy, also wrote, “Why is BAT not answering the questions himself? Why do we have APC members asking these questions?

“This is an absolute waste of time & data. Imagine the presidential candidate asking ‘team members’ to answer questions thrown. The only sensible question was from a lady that told him she wanted him to answer himself. Will he delegate a speech at the UN or other larger events?” Abiodun asked.

Meanwhile in a statement by his media team, said he adopted the “to show team-ship”.

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At the lecture, Tinubu after his opening remarks, assigned Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai to speak on how his (Tinubu-led) government would address insecurity and asked the Director of Strategic Communication of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Aleke, to respond to the question on oil theft.

Tinubu also delegated a former Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, Wale Edun, to respond to a question on how he (Tinubu) would boost the economy if elected.

Others, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; former Ekiti Governor, Kayode Fayemi; APC National Women’s Leader, Dr. Betta Edu; also answered questions.