Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Presidential flag bearers of six leading political parties, have been scheduled to feature on a popular presidential town hall known as ” The Candidates.”
The two- hour live broadcast show will be hosted by a seasoned broadcaster, Kadaria Ahmed, and transmitted live on the NTA, FRCN, DSTV, YouTube, Facebook, Radio Now, among other platforms.
Ikengaonline gathered that the popular political town hall meeting will hold from November 17 to 23.
‘The Candidates’ presidential town hall series, an original Daria Media concept, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, and others, is a two-hour live televised town hall meeting series, featuring presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the six leading political parties.
These parties were selected using a combination of editorial judgment, aggregated polls by the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, occupation of elective offices and presence across the country.
Kole Shettima, the Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, in a release, said “the foundation is privileged to support an opportunity for Nigerians to interact with the leading Presidential candidates in the 2023 general election.”
According to the organizers, the town hall is scheduled as follows:
Prince Adewole Adebayo and running mate, Yusuf Buhari, of the Social Democratic Party – 17th November, 2022; Mr. Omoyele Stephen Sowore and running mate, Barrister Haruna Garba Magashi, of the African Action Congress Party –18th November, 2022; Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and running mate, Bishop Isaac Idahosa, of the New Nigeria Peoples Party – 19th November, 2022.
Also, Mr. Peter Obi (CON) and running mate, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, of the Labour Party – 21st November 2022; Atiku Abubakar and running mate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party – 22nd November, 2022; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Sen. Shettima Kashim of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – 23rd November 2022.
The release indicated that Kadaria Ahmed, a leading Nigerian broadcaster and journalist, will moderate each town hall.
“She has been moderating Presidential Debates and town halls since the 2011 elections,” the release added.
The Candidates presidential town hall this year is produced by Obi Asika, Ceo Cabal Ent who has produced several major live events, festivals, TV shows, reality formats and has been at the forefront of media production for decades. He and his team will seek to bring that quality to The Candidates.
Obi Asika, CEO of Cabal Entertainment and Executive Producer of The Candidates said: “ I am hugely excited to be working with Kadaria Ahmed, one of Nigeria’s most distinguished journalists and broadcasters with a long and impressive track record in print, tv and radio.
“We hope to deliver a town hall series that will make all Nigerians proud regardless of which candidate they support and we want to enable the best possible platform for all the leading candidates to come and share their best plans for Nigeria with Nigerians.”
The release further read: “The Candidates‘ will be a live streaming and live broadcast production, providing a unique platform for direct interaction between the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the leading political parties in Nigeria and her citizens.
“In the Candidates Presidential Townhall series, we are delivering six presidential townhalls and seven pundit shows with leading national commentators hosting these conversations before each town hall. Each edition of the series also has six remote locations in Nigerian universities with live interactive audiences in Maiduguri, Enugu, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano & Abuja who will be part of the live town hall series.
“There will be an audience of 100 people for each town hall, including CSOs and the Diplomatic Corps, It will be an opportunity for Nigerians to hear directly from the aspirants and to ask them questions on governance and nation building.
“The Candidates‘ has partnered with Zikoko Citizen to distill the conversation for the young, social media engaged audience, and with Africa Fact Check to ensure accuracy and accountability.
“The Candidates, will be broadcast across Nigeria on all platforms: live on NTA, and over 30 FRCN radio stations, other partner TV stations, as well as streamed online on YouTube and social media platforms to enable Nigerians in the diaspora to participate.”
Ikengaonline will also help to bring the show to its teeming audience.
