The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Rotimi Odunaike has strongly complained about his exclusion and that of several candidates from the Governorship Debate, which was organised on Sunday by the Debate Consortium, comprising TVC, Channels Television, The PUNCH and Vanguard newspapers.
In a statement on Monday, Odunaike said the repeated exclusion of several candidates from public-facing debates ahead of the 2027 Lagos governorship election raises serious concerns about fairness, transparency and the role of the media in facilitating an informed democratic process.
He wondered why a debate that featured only four of the 17 governorship candidates can be as representative.
Only the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, the African Democratic Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party were invited to the debate.
Odunaike said: “Despite several attempts by my team to secure my participation, we were informed that the selection was restricted to those four candidates.
“After subsequent persistent effort, we were told that my exclusion was due to a perceived lack of media visibility, a position that does not reflect my recent heightened media appearances and engagements including on leading platforms such as ARISE TV, Channels TV, MiTV, Nigeria Info, NTA and Jimi Disu’s Timeless podcast, among many others across offline and online channels”.
The Labour Party candidate said that Sunday’s debate was not an isolated incident.
He recalled that on 1 October 2026 at The Platform Nigeria’s Gen Z and Millennial Town Hall in Lagos, “similar efforts to secure a place on the discussion platform were unsuccessful. Again, we were told that the four participating candidates had already been predetermined”.
He then querried: “Why only four out of 17 candidates? And why the same four candidates?
“What criteria determine who gets invited and who gets excluded? And why should the choices available to Lagosians be defined by a select group of media organisations and event organizers? Why deny a party and its candidate, confident in their programs a unique democratic forum to present and defend such to a watching public of electorates”?
According to Odunaike, it is not “question of one candidate being denied a platform. It is a question of fairness to all candidates and, more importantly, fairness to the electorate.
“Public debates should expand democratic participation, not narrow it. They should give Lagosians the opportunity to hear different ideas, examine competing programmes and make informed assessments of those seeking their mandate.
“We recognise that organisers may have practical considerations in determining the format and participation of debates. However, the criteria must be transparent, consistently applied, and defensible.
“One would expect media organisations and debate organisers to extend invitations to all INEC-recognised candidates in the spirit of equity and fairness, leaving it to the candidates to decide whether to participate and demonstrate the substance of their ideas alongside their peers.
“With three months to the governorship elections, most political parties and candidates are still at various stages of their campaign roll-outs, with considerable attention devoted to strategic media and stakeholder engagements. Against this backdrop, a subjective criterion such as media visibility should not become a circular requirement that denies candidates the very platforms through which they can engage the public and demonstrate their ideas.
“I therefore call on media organisations, debate organisers and other institutions hosting election-related public forums to ensure greater openness, fairness and inclusiveness in their selection processes.
“Lagosians deserve to see and hear all the options available to them. They deserve the opportunity to assess the candidates and decide for themselves. No credible democratic process should pre-empt that choice or unfairly limit their right to make it”.
