Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu has said he avoids talking to the Nigerian media because journalists want to use him to make money.
Since winning the ticket of his party, Tinubu has avoided talking to the media, even refusing to attend townhall meetings organized to interrogate Presidential candidates.
When asked while he has refused to talk to the Nigerian media at Chatham House on Monday, Tinubu said he will not allow them to use him and make money.
He said “I see myself as a marketable individual. They want to use me and make money and I said No”
Tinubu also refused to answer questions bordering on the economy, health and Nigeria’s multidimensional security challenges, but instead, assigned them to his surrogates.
Mr Tinubu assigned the question on oil theft to one of his campaign spokespersons, Dele Alake; the question on security he assigned to Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna; and the question on youth development and inclusion to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River.
Also, a former commissioner of finance in Lagos, Wale Edun, was asked to answer the question on job creation; current House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila answered question on defence, and incumbent Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, took the question on youth inclusion in politics and governance.
The APC presidential candidate excused his failure to answer questions as a demonstration of his “philosophies and doctrines that I believe in. It’s teamship. Unbreakable team,” adding that “To demonstrate that, I will choose the first question, assigned to Dele Alake, the second question assigned to Nasir Elrufai, and the third question assign to Ben Ayade.”
While Mr Tinubu claimed to boycott the questions to demonstrate his belief in “teamship,” his repeated incoherence and loss of awareness at public functions suggest a different perspective to his unexpected abstinence from questions.
Mr Tinubu’s aides have shielded him from public debates and live press briefings in an effort to limit the gaffes that come with his participation at public gatherings showing his weak condition, which several commentators have denounced as unpresidential.
He also expressed no confidence in the decision of the National Electoral Commission to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) for the 2023 election.
“INEC is still yet to assure us during this election that electronic transmission, the technology being used for the accreditation and the total votes counts is reliable, dependable and assuring in our democratic process before we introduce a complicated element of…ballot,” he said.
Tinubu said he’s one of the politicians in Nigeria now losing confidence in the nation’s voting system with the introduction of the new technology ahead of the polls.
“We are still losing confidence in our democratic and voting system,” he said.
