2023: This Was How They Turned Their Country Around – Utomi Begs INEC, Nigerians To Copy South Korea’s Politics

Political economist, Professor Pat Utomi has insisted on the disqualification of any presidential candidate who fails to attend election debates ahead of the 2023 election.

Utomi who stated this while speaking to newsmen in Abuja argued that the debate is an avenue for the citizenry to assess the plans and capacity of candidates before the elections.

He urged the Nigerian electorates to use their power to vote against any candidate who refuses to show up for debates.

Using South Korea as a reference, the Labour Party stalwart said that the fortunes of the country changed after they decided that the most important assessment for political candidates should be debates.

He explained that South Korea made it mandatory for candidates to go through series of debates before the election.

Utomi claimed that once this was entrenched in the country’s politics, incompetent candidates such as criminals and money bags fled the political scene.

According to him, “The fortunes of South Korea were turned around because the electoral commission was so despondent about the quality of their politics that they decided that the thing that should matter the most for elections are debates between candidates.

“So it became entrenched in the conventions of South Korean politics. Before anybody goes to an election, they would have had a series of debates on the streets, in town halls, on television to define South Korean elections.

“Once debates came to define elections, moneybags and all kinds of criminals and charlatans ran away and their electoral process became one of a sustained, enormously developed country.

“So any politician that refuses to make this fundamental contribution to the democratic process should be considered unfit, unable and unwilling to participate in the democratic process.”

Utomi added that if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not have the courage to disqualify such a candidate, the electorates should do so on election day.