The battle for Nigeria’s 2027 presidency took a fresh turn on Tuesday as African Democratic Congress candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenged President Bola Tinubu to a national presidential debate, declaring that he would not participate in any debate from which the incumbent and the ruling All Progressives Congress are absent.
Atiku’s position was announced in a statement by his official spokesperson, Kenneth Okonkwo, who argued that presidential debates should provide Nigerians with an opportunity to directly compare the policies, programmes and records of the ruling party with those of its challengers.
The former Vice President’s camp said it would no longer accept debate arrangements involving opposition candidates alone, insisting that such encounters risk turning the opposition against itself while leaving the government outside the line of scrutiny.
“Political contest worldwide has always been between the ruling party and the opposition parties. Presidential debates worldwide have also been organised between the ruling party and the opposition,” Okonkwo said.
He described the practice of staging debates without the governing party as “untenable” and accused the Tinubu administration of benefiting politically when opposition candidates are left to confront one another without the President being required to defend his record.
Atiku’s campaign alleged that the arrangement had become a strategy for weakening opposition unity ahead of the election.
“This has become a strategy that the failed, incompetent, and corrupt APC government under Tinubu has been using to further instigate the opposition to attack each other while shielding itself from scrutiny by the Nigerian people,” the statement said.
The allegations against the APC represent the position of Atiku’s campaign.
According to Okonkwo, Atiku would therefore make his appearance at presidential debates conditional on the participation of Tinubu and the APC.
“HE Atiku Abubakar, as the leader of the coalition of opposition parties and leaders, is left with no other choice than to make his appearance in any presidential debates conditional on the participation of President Bola Tinubu and the APC. There is no hiding place for APC in 2027,” he said.
The move raises the stakes in the emerging 2027 campaign and appears designed to place direct pressure on Tinubu to defend his administration’s policies before a national audience.
Atiku’s camp, however, stressed that the former Vice President was not withdrawing from public engagement.
It said he remained willing to appear at town hall meetings, press conferences, interviews and other forums that would enable Nigerians to question him directly about his plans for the country.
“Atiku Abubakar is willing to engage the Nigerian people through interviews, townhall meetings, press conferences, and any other forum of interaction with the people but will not participate in any arrangement that will pit the opposition against itself and give undue advantage to APC,” the statement added.
The ADC candidate consequently issued what his campaign described as a direct challenge to Tinubu to meet him in a national presidential debate.
“Atiku Abubakar, therefore, challenges President Bola Tinubu to a national presidential debate which will provide an opportunity for both the ruling party and the opposition parties to address Nigerians on their policies and ways to achieve those policies so that Nigerians can make an informed choice for the 2027 elections,” Okonkwo said.
The declaration injects a new strategic issue into the presidential contest, where opposition figures are seeking to present themselves as credible alternatives to the incumbent administration.
For Atiku, insisting on Tinubu’s presence could allow his campaign to shift attention away from rivalry among opposition candidates and towards a direct comparison between the government’s record and the opposition’s proposals.
It could also intensify pressure on the APC to clarify whether Tinubu will participate in major presidential debates during the campaign.
As the race gathers momentum, the challenge sets the stage for a potentially defining confrontation: whether Nigeria’s leading presidential contenders will face one another directly before voters or conduct much of the campaign from separate political platforms.
