The campaign council for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has said their candidate is attending events bigger than Chatham House.
The Chatham House in the united kingdom has invited presidential candidates including All Progressives Congress’ Bola Tinubu, New Nigeria People’s Party’s Rabiu Kwankwaso, and, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, to share their plans for Nigeria if they are elected.
However, Daniel Bwala, a spokesperson for the PDP presidential campaign council, stated on Wednesday when he was featured on ‘The Morning Show’ on Arise TV, that Atiku does not need to honor the Chatham House’s invitation.
Atiku, who had appeared twice before the policy institute in 2007 and 2018, was reported to have ignored his recent invitation to share his plans to lead the country if elected president in the February 25, 2023 election.
Defending Atiku, however, Bwala said the former vice president already met with government officials in the UK and shared his policy plan with them, hence he sees no point appearing before the Chatham House.
“The Chatham House, like I said the other time, is a building but the institution running the Chatham House is the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
“So, what they usually do is that they discuss policies around the world and they raise up policies, they bring policymakers and people who are trying to think of change to come and have a conversation.
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“And each time they invite anybody from anywhere in the world, you will see representation from around the world so that when you speak, they will say you’re addressing the world,” he said.
Bwala accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of hiring lobbyists to organize his meeting with the institute, claiming that Atiku’s made a “bigger” move by holding meetings with UK government officials.
“Now, check the one that Asiwaju went, who is the world there? It is APC Nigeria and APC London, then the assistant chair of Chatham House and those other white people you see are the lobbyists that APC briefed to organize the event.
“They went and made a caricature of themselves then in the evening they were singing ‘Buga o’ and jumping as if what they did in the morning amounted to displaying intelligence, leading to what we want to change as a country.
“Atiku instead has gone above the Chatham House to talk about the people that influence policy, the government of the United Kingdom. It is like you’re saying somebody from America is here to Nigeria to hold a meeting with NIPSS in Jos (National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies) and you’re saying that one is much more important than somebody coming to talk to the government officials of Nigeria on policies and collaboration, which one is bigger?
“They are holding to form (and) we are holding to substance. We are talking about things that matter to the Nigerian people and therefore, Atiku is not obligated to appear there. There is no law in Nigeria or anywhere in the world that says when they call you, you must go.
“Afterall, when you go the Chatham House, what do you do? You speak and after you speak, one or two people will ask questions. Have Nigerians not been asking questions? Those that will vote…most of those people don’t vote, the people that will vote in Nigeria have asked questions about electricity, economy, healthcare, insecurity in their homes and farmers have asked how do we go back to the farm and he has answered that. Let us stop this neocolonialism.”
