The Importance Of Kashim Shettima

Reuben Abati

REUBEN ABATI

There is a potentially disruptive speculation, a kite being flown in political conversations, which could affect the fortunes of the ruling party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the relationship between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima as Nigerians begin the dress rehearsal towards the 2027 general elections. It is the whisper, in quiet and low tones, that there is a plan afoot to drop Senator Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate in 2027. It will be recalled that in June 2025, at a meeting of the APC North East stakeholders, party leaders including the National Vice Chairman (North East), Mustapha Salihu, and the then APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Danguje while endorsing President Tinubu for a second term had notably failed to mention the name of his Deputy, Senator Kashim Shettima. This prompted instant riotous behaviour on the part of the delegates from Borno State who reacted by bringing the meeting to an abrupt end. They threw chairs and threatened physical assault on perceived enemies of Shettima. They chanted: “No Shettima, No APC in the North East.”  Whereas the party at the national level tried to offer an explanation, Shettima’s supporters took the development as a deliberate sign of disrespect to the man who is the highest-ranking politician from the region. They could not be pacified by the excuse that it is the prerogative of the President to announce his own running mate.

The truth is that the office of the Vice President is a creation of Section 141 of the 1999 Constitution. It is further true that he or she is nominated by the President and the validity of the President’s own nomination rests on his choice of a Vice President, making the Presidency a joint ticket. The Constitution however does not specify the identity of such a person except the general provisions which apply to the President in Sections 137 – 140.  For persons who have taken politics as a vocation in Nigeria, most of them have no second address by the way, every gesture, every word is taken as a signal. Before the Gombe incident, Shettima’s name was also omitted during the APC National Summit at the Presidential Villa in May 2025.  Those who printed campaign posters at the time to promote President Tinubu’s candidacy omitted Shettima’s name and picture.

The permutations and speculations rather than disappear, have intensified. Only yesterday, the Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, raised an alarm over the exclusion of Vice President Kashim Shettima’s picture on the banner portraying party leaders in the region.  North East Governors and APC stakeholders are currently in Maiduguri, Borno State Capital, for the North East public hearing on Constitutional amendment. Maiduguri is the Vice President’s main base. He was Governor of Borno State for eight years (2011 – 2019). Yet someone has the effrontery to put up banners which have the images of the President, the five APC Governors of the North East, and the National Legal Adviser, deliberately leaving out the Vice President. Meanwhile, the Concerned Northern APC Youth Forum has cautioned President Tinubu against tampering with the current APC presidential ticket. “We started this journey together, and we intend to finish it together…”, the Forum declared in a statement issued in Kano. Similarly, the President of the APC Youth Parliament, Kabiru Garba Kobi, speaking to journalists in Bauchi yesterday, said “Any attempt to replace Senator Kashim Shettima would amount to a grave political miscalculation that could cost President Tinubu massive support in the North, especially the North East.”

Those flying the kite, in an auto-suggestive fashion since last year, have even suggested possible replacements. The initial list comprised Hon. Yakubu Dogara, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose choice it was said would address the backlash over the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, the NNPP 2023 Presidential candidate and a chieftain of Kano politics, a major vote bloc, Professor Baba Gana Zulum, Governor of Borno State – on the basis of his popularity and the fact that he is from exactly the same state as Shettima. The scramble for Shettima’s job has since reached high fever pitch with the involvement of the United States in the politics of religion in Nigeria. Trump the self-appointed defender of Christians in Nigeria threatened on October 31, 2025, that he would storm Nigeria “guns a-blazing” to rescue Nigerian Christians from reported genocide and persecution. On December 25, 2025, President Trump sent Nigerians a Christmas gift by firing Tomahawk missiles into Sokoto state, on the basis of intelligence, per New York Times, purportedly provided by an Igbo screwdriver merchant in Onitsha market, determined to screw down Nigeria. This attribution of the source of intelligence for the assault on Sokoto, the original base of the Caliphate, the home of the leader of the Muslim faithful in Nigeria is enough to screw up Nigeria.

The triumphalism of a section of the Nigerian Christian elite has only deepened tensions birthing the renewed impression and agitation that the only way forward for Nigeria is for the country to show that it is not against Christians in the country in order to pacify Trump – the self-styled commander-in-chief of the world. When President Tinubu tinkered with the Muslim-Muslim arrangement in the leadership of the Ministry of Defence, with the replacement of the former Minister of Defence, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar with General Christopher Musa, the political fortune watchers of Nigeria concluded that the President would do the same with the Presidential ticket towards 2027. Their main reason is that Trump will not accept a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But why should Trump dictate to Nigeria? Where are the people who voted for a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023? Where is the sovereignty of Nigeria? The very suggestion that it is President Trump, not Nigerians who will determine the political process in Nigeria in 2027 is a defeatist, slavish expression.

It is worse that, in a robotic fashion, the people flying kites in the village square like children have now revised their list of possible Shettima replacements to include only Christians, namely: Hon. Yakubu Dogara (his name is still on their list), Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang, and the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah. They insist that nobody should be surprised if President Tinubu decides to drop Shettima given his own antecedents. As Governor of Lagos State, President Tinubu had three Deputy Governors in eight years: Mrs Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, who resigned in protest, Mr. Femi Pedro, who has now been recently rehabilitated with a marginal ambassadorial nomination, and Chief Abiodun Ogunleye who quietly completed the remainder of Pedro’s tenure in 2007.  It is not certain that President Tinubu will adopt the same tactics in Abuja. Nigerian politics is far more complex, and different from the containerized, localized politics of Lagos state. It is for this reason that I share the view of former Presidential adviser and elder statesman, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed when he said in July 2025 that President Tinubu should have personally debunked the stories about his plans to drop the Vice President for someone else. Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the Presidential spokesperson dismissed the subject as “a non-issue”. Baba-Ahmed argued that the President’s silence can only fuel uncertainty and political tension. He cannot be more correct.

It would indeed be a big miscalculation to attempt to displace Vice President Kashim Shettima. He has been a very loyal, humble and hardworking Deputy. If he were some other persons, he would have been noisy and loud about whatever he may consider as unfair treatment. He has however, been quiet, and dutiful and not made any attempt to upstage his boss. Besides, he is a competent powerhouse with strong intellectual abilities. He has strong credentials: a former Governor and a former Senator.  President Tinubu already has about 28 Governors in his pocket, along with the structures in the states, if this is so certain as it seems, then changing his running mate ahead of 2027 would amount to a distraction, that could upset current calculations for the APC. It is not just that the entire North East would turn against the President, the emergence of a Christian in place of Shettima will turn the tables and the Muslim North, already agitated by the narrative of being anti-Christian, against the President. There is no point changing a winning ticket. Vice President Shettima is of greater political value than all the persons being proposed as likely replacements. Dogara, Mutfwang, Christopher Musa and Bishop Kukah are from minority groups in the North. How many votes can they bring to the table? Politics is not about sentiments. It is a hard-nose exercise in pragmatism. President Tinubu cannot afford to gamble with Northern votes. Sustaining the Tinubu-Shettima ticket conveys an image of stability, continuity and confidence.

And it is not true that President Trump is in a position to dictate the religious outlook of the Nigerian Presidency. The well-worn story about protection of Nigerian Christians is at best a cover story for America’s strategic interest. What does the United States stand to gain from having a Christian Vice President or President in Nigeria. The fact that the Christian community is represented in Aso Villa does not translate into any special advantage for a Christian. The politics of proximity has its limits. It is not proven that having a kinsman or a person of the same religious persuasion or gender in power confers any special privileges. The long-term objective in Nigeria should be to have in power and office at all levels persons who believe in the country, who are competent and patriotic, not ethnic or religious gladiators. In 2027, there should be alternative tickets: Christian-Muslim, Muslim-Christian, Christian- Animist, Atheist-Freethinker and the people’s right to choose should be respected. But President Tinubu does not need to set his own house on fire. The hidden campaigners for an APC Christian Vice President cannot offer a causal link between having a Muslim as Vice President and the alleged persecution of Christians. Vice President Shettima is a liberal, anti-tribal political leader. Why punish him for his chosen faith when he has done nothing wrong. He is protected under Section 42: the right to freedom from discrimination. Even if his faith is not the issue, those Muslims who are eyeing his seat and seeking to unseat him are only being mischievously ambitious, not that they have anything special to offer. President Tinubu should rescue his Vice President from the harassment and mental torture of having to hear every day that other persons want his job.  His contributions and loyalty should not be discounted.

The hustle however is enabled by the fact that the Nigerian Constitution makes the position of the Vice President and Deputy Governors dependent on the kindness of the President. The Presidency and the Governorship positions are otherwise described as joint tickets, but in reality, the Deputies are appendages that can be discarded by a powerful principal, who has the legislature on his side, or the freedom to choose whoever he wants in the event of a second term in office. The APC Youth Forum was perhaps right to have declared that “We started this journey together, and we intend to finish it together…”. Tinubu and Shettima should finish it together. The Constitution, for future purposes, should conceive of the Presidency and the Governorship positions as a Siamese-twins arrangement. Otherwise, those who seek to cause friction would always have their way. In 2014, ahead of the 2015 Presidential election, one of the loudest whispers in the corridors of Aso Villa was the speculation that President Jonathan was going to drop his Vice President, Arc. Namadi Sambo in the second term race. The rumour mongers were so certain they said they had seen the speech President Jonathan was going to read to declare his interest in the 2015 Presidential election, and that Vice President Sambo’s name was not there. The President found no need to respond to the speculations but when he declared his intention to contest for a second term on November 11, 2014, he named Vice President Sambo as his running mate.  It was a Christian-Muslim ticket at the time, and the circumstances were different. The choice of a running mate was not even such an issue, but it is this time around, especially with the United States’ interest in Nigeria’s religious politics, and that is why President Tinubu should douse the tension early, and not succumb to the antics of blackmailers and opportunists weaponizing religion within the APC. He chose Senator Shettima in 2022. He should be courageous and principled enough to stand by his choice in 2026.