2023: Kadaria Ahmed Begins Hosting Presidential Townhall Series ‘The Candidates’

As political parties and their respective Presidential candidates prepare to win the 2023 Election, ‘The Candidates’, an election special town hall series for presidential candidates and their running mates will return on November 17, 2022.

“The Candidates”, a presidential town hall series, is an original Daria Media concept, and will be live on NTA, FRCN, Radio Now, DSTV, YouTube, Facebook, and more.

The program was a departure from the debate format traditionally associated with the presidential elections, which has proved somewhat controversial in Nigeria and many times, takes place without leading contenders.

Aired by Daria Media prior to the 2019 General elections, the town hall meetings provided an opportunity for the candidates to interact directly with the electorates and vice-versa.

According to a statement released by Daria Media, the 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 says “the foundation is privileged to support an opportunity for Nigerians to interact with the leading Presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections.”

The Candidates’ Presidential town hall will take place as follows:

Prince Adewole Adebayo and running mate, Alh. 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.

Mr. Peter Obi (CON) and running mate, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, of the Labour Party – 21st November 2022.

Alh. Atiku Abubakar and running mate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party – 22nd November 2022.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Sen. Shettima Kashim of the All Progressives Congress Party – 23rd November 2022.

Each town hall will be moderated by a prominent journalist and broadcaster from Nigeria, Kadaria Ahmed. Since the 2011 elections, she has been presiding over town hall series and presidential debates.

Obi Asika, CEO of Cabal Ent, who has created a number of significant live events, festivals, television programmes, and reality formats, and has long been at the forefront of media production, is in charge of producing “The Candidates” this year. He would try to impart that quality to The Candidates along with his staff, the statement from Daria Media Concept disclosed.

Asika 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,” he added.

The Candidates will be a live broadcast and streaming production that offers a singular forum for direct communication between the presidential and vice presidential candidates of Nigeria’s major political parties and the country’s voters.

In the Candidates Presidential Town hall series, the organisers say they will be delivering six presidential town hall series and seven pundit shows with leading national commentators hosting the conversations before each town hall.

According to the statement, each edition of the series also has six remote locations in Nigerian universities with live interactive audiences in Maiduguri, Enugu, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja who will be part of the live town hall series.

They also said there will be an audience of 100 people for each town hall, including CSOs and the Diplomatic Corps, and that it will be an opportunity for Nigerians to hear directly from the aspirants and to ask them questions on governance and nation building.