The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu was conspicuously absent at the signing of Peace Accord for the 2023 general election held in Abuja on Thursday.
The Peace Accord instituted by a group led by Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Nigerian military Head of State, was designed to compel presidential and governorship candidates of the various political parties in the country to maintain the peace and keep the process violent-free during elections.
Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling party missed the event as he was believed to be in London, attending to his health. Just like in many occasions in recent times, the former Lagos governor was represented by his running mate, Kashim Shettima, who joined the likes of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) among others.
Earlier, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, told his host on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on Arise Television that he would be heading straight to the venue to participate in the ceremony, even though he acknowledged not placing any value on it, because the country was not at war.
He said: “I don’t know why we’re signing this peace accord when we are not at war.
This signifies that Nigeria is at war. Elections are a war in this country. For the sake of symbolism of this, I will show up there, and sign whatever they want so that the people can understand that I subscribe to peace during the election and after the election.”
