The presidential town hall series is an Arise Television and Center for Democracy and Development project (CDD). The first presidential town hall meeting's agenda included security and the economy.

Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta State and vice presidential candidate for the PDP, was present to represent the party's nominee. However, the presidential candidate of the ruling APC was not represented.

Peter Obi, candidate for the Labour Party (LP), was present, as were Rabiu Kwakwanso, presidential candidate for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Kola Abiola, who later replaced APC as candidate for the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).

Okowa stated that Atiku had obtained clearance from the event's organisers to be absent.

The governor of Delta stated, "He (Atiku) is outside of the country." We secured permission from the event's organisers for him to be represented. When the time comes for arguments, we will engage in them. This time, however, it is a town hall. Atiku has asked me to represent him.

Festus Keyamo, Director of Public Affairs and Spokesperson for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, issued a statement last night citing the following reasons for Tinubu's absence:

"Numerous radio and television networks in Nigeria have expressed interest in organising such discussions, and out of respect for other radio and television stations, our candidate will not make selective appearances on certain networks while neglecting others. By God's particular grace, he aims to treat everyone and every business fairly and equally.

"Second, Tinubu's rigorous campaign schedule will not allow him to accept all of these invites from various radio and television networks; hence, our decision for him not to begin with one TV station and then snub others.

"Thirdly, our candidate had long since realised the importance of communicating directly with Nigerians, and shortly after unveiling his Action Plan as president, he began holding town hall meetings, beginning with his interaction with the business community and other stakeholders in Kano, followed by the town hall meeting and presentation by experts in Lagos last week. In Minna, Niger State, he will connect with agricultural and commodities groups tomorrow.

"While we appreciate the invitation from Arise TV, we want to assure Nigerians that we would continue to hold these debate groups and Nigerians in the highest regard." Our candidate will be heard loud and clear by Nigerians in different platforms.

The candidates were chosen based on the performance of their parties in an online survey conducted by the event's organisers, in which the 18 political parties were listed in alphabetical order.

In an earlier statement, CDD head Idayat Hassan defended the organization's decision to invite only four candidates by stating that the selection process followed a predetermined approach.

She stated, "To ensure sufficient time is spent to hearing each candidate, we conducted a Twitter poll from October 4 to October 10 asking residents to vote for the four parties they wished to hear from." The 18 political parties were arranged alphabetically. After the poll was ended, votes were not cast for nine parties.

"African Action Congress (AAC): 20,7 percent; All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA): 6.9 percent; Labour Party (LP): 96.6 percent; Nigerian National Progressive Party (NNPP): 51,7 percent; People's Democratic Party (PDP): 82.8 percent; People's Republican Party (PRP): 6.9 percent; Social Democratic Party (SDP): 6.9 percent; and Young Progressive Party (YPP): 13.8 percent.

Hassan said in a statement, "The results of this survey impacted our decision to invite the four parties with the highest scores to the town hall: the LP, APC, PDP, and NNPP."

While the absence of some presidential contenders generated a stir at the town hall, the audience protested "appearance by proxy" for more than thirty minutes. The exchange delayed the scheduled 7:30 p.m. start time of the event. The difficulty began when Okowa was invited to speak alongside Kwankwaso, Obi, and Abiola. Tinubu pledged to participate in future series, however Atiku reportedly informed the organisers that he had just returned from a trip and would join the conversation as it continued. As the show was about to begin, however, the audience grew unruly as demonstrators chanted that it was intended for presidential candidates and not their running partners.

Dino Melaye and the Atiku campaign, however, argued that "the ticket is one." Even when the dialogue eventually began, there was continued dissent and commotion following the formal introduction of the candidates. While Obi stated that it was time for Nigeria to recover from its current condition through the creation of jobs and the revitalization of ailing industries through public-private partnerships, Okowa emphasised the importance of peace and unity as one of the elements for progress. The candidates discussed disarming and lifting people out of poverty, developing vast tracts of land in the North, and altering the security architecture.

Okowa stated, "Technology is really vital, and we will continue to need far more of it than we already have." Our security equipment is quite compact. I am certain that if you went to the police station today with a device that can detect criminals on the spot, you would only find one or two for the entire country, which is insufficient. We must revise our security strategy.

"It is essential to devolve the police force so that each state would have its own police force and operationalize it." Because these individuals work in their surroundings, they are in a better position to have a thorough awareness of their areas and know precisely what to perform in them. Numerous individuals are requesting state police; one centralised police force is insufficient to address all of our problems.

"As of now, Nigeria is being overrun; we need greater training, and we must also ensure that we offer enough welfare and pay the police force and other agencies more than they are now receiving." "We must address the challenges of unemployment and ensure that our children are educated." There will be a large number of people on the streets who will be recruited into these fatal vices until these two tasks are completed.

Kwankwaso stated, "Some of us are so enraged that we are leaving the PDP and the APC because we believe there are better ways to run this country." We believe that the system has failed, which is why we chose to implement the NNPP. Insecurity came from the failure of other areas of the economy; one cannot separate security from the economy.

If the government is doing the right thing, I believe that many people will lay down their arms. "It is the obligation of the government to ensure that all Nigerians live in peace and conduct their legitimate business without regard to religion or ethnicity, within the confines of the law." Obi stated, "The more people are lifted out of poverty, the less crime there will be in the country." They act as they do because they are aware of the poverty in the country. We live in a nation where government officials are wealthier than business owners; we produce poverty.

As governor, everyone was aware of our contributions to community leadership. We were able to employ what we can refer to as modern communication — the telephone — to give every community with a functioning vigilante system, outfitting them with vehicles and communication equipment and connecting them to the police. "A comprehensive examination of the security architecture, beginning with personnel expansion." According to my information, there are 320 thousand police officers in a nation of over 200 million people; let's expand that number to at least one million. I am in favour of three layers of policing (LG, state, and central). "The most crucial step in preventing crime is to begin lifting people out of poverty," Abiola stated, "The security agencies that we have now require improvement; it's not enough to acquire the appropriate individual; we must also continue training the staff." The machinery and technologies are available for use; in many situations, they exist; yet, we do not utilise them, which speaks to the quality of our military and political leadership.

The Nigerian security architecture has never been utilised to date. Return to the original security configuration and make it functional; do not replicate it. We have a national security council that hasn't met since 1999, and its eight members are supposed to manage objectively. "We have a security adviser who has been underutilised until this point."

Regarding the exchange rate, Obi stated that gasoline subsidies are a form of organised crime, emphasising that populations of a similar size consume less fuel. He stated that subsidies will be eliminated and the funds would be used to fund the construction of refineries and other vital infrastructure. He stated that the oil thieves are government employees and questioned why the Nigerian Navy could not identify oil thefts. He also claimed that fiscal responsibility is a panacea for lowering the exchange rate, stressing that the economic mismanagement occurring in the country will continue to cause the exchange rate to increase.

Kola recommended that subsidies should be allocated to mortgages and other job-creating initiatives. He stated that an economy dependent on imports contributes to the rise in the exchange rate.

Kwankwaso accused the government of looting national assets and advocated for its abolition. According to him, there is considerable corruption in subsidy management. He stated that a required palliative would be developed when the subsidy is eventually eliminated. According to Okowa, subsidies are a crime. He proposed exploring viable refinery solutions. He encouraged the government to ensure that the Dangote Refinery begins operations the next year and also to promote modular refineries. He stated that there are two levels of oil theft: illicit refineries and organised theft. He proposed surveillance and emphasised that the pipeline surveillance scheme was illegal.

Regarding the currency rate, he stated that export-oriented production and the elimination of subsidies will help the country save money. Okowa deemed the N800 black market rate for a dollar unacceptable.

Regarding political investment and the customary method of recouping investment in an election prior to considering national development, Kwankwaso stated that his party does not purchase candidates.

Obi concurred with Kwankwaso that Obidients are not giving "shishi." He stated that Nigerians should evaluate candidates based on their prior records in order to combat corruption. If you can manage a penny, you should be entrusted with a naira. Along with my running mate, I will combat corruption. If you do not steal, you can exert authority over others around you. Okowa asserted that anti-corruption agencies were established by the PDP. In addition, he criticised the NNPP and LP for claiming they do not spend money. He inquired as to whether they walked to campaign events around the nation.