Presidential candidates in the 2023 elections should campaign on issues as “Nigerians need to hear how their future leaders plan to address the rising level of insecurity, considerable economic challenges and the impact of foreign affairs in domestic considerations.”

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) said on Sunday ahead of the second series of presidential town-halls it is organising in conjunction with Arise TV.

CDD Director, Idayat Hassan, said ahead of the polls, the organisation identified the need to ensure citizens hear from the presidential candidates.

“This follows CDD’s constant campaign to ensure that the parties and candidates conduct issues-based campaigns.

“We welcome other platforms and opportunities to support an issues-based campaign in the run-up to the 2023 elections.

“This has informed our engagements around the elections, from providing fact-checking support and working with partners to provide analyses on the election security terrain.

“We are optimistic that such dialogue and engagement can only portend for better civic engagement and lead to a peaceful and reflective election outcome,” she said.

The presidential candidates participating in the event include Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress; Yabagi Sani of African Democratic Congress; Peter Umeadi of All Progressives Grand Alliance and Adewole Adebayo of Social Democratic Party.

In the first series of the town-hall, candidates of the Labour Party Peter Obi and his NNPP counterpart, Rabiu Kwankwaso participated, while PDP’s Atiku Abubakar sent his running mate Ifeanyi Okowa. Bola Tinubu, the APC candidate, neither showed up nor sent a representation.

(NAN)