Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, no doubt meant well for Nigeria. But there appears to be some reactionary forces around him, who appear bent on holding this country down. These forces, activate sectional, religious and other primordial interests to remain around the president, so as to continue to influence some of his decisions with the sole intention of keeping this country down. These forces do not really mean well. The earlier Mr. President calls their bluff and change direction, the better.
As a Muslim, especially one from the northern Nigeria, I know it is God that gives power and gives it to anyone He likes at any point in life. However, the same God places some persons in strategic position to help actualise that ambition. For me, I want to believe that God did not make a mistake by raising Senator Kashim Shettima to rise in support of President Tinubu, in the build up to the 2023 presidential election at a time no prominent Northerner could come out in the open to declare support for the Jagaban Borgu’s presidential ambition.
As a sitting Senator, he publicly declared his support for Tinubu’s presidency earlier than any prominent northerner. He followed it up by granting an explosive interview to Daily Trust on Sunday, which was published February 13, 2022, one clear year before the presidential election.
In that interview, Shettima stated emphatically that it was time for the North to support the presidential ambition of Tinubu because he did a lot in actualising the lifelong ambition of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who became President in 2015 after failing in there different elections before 2015.
For those who may not know, Shettima, was one of the three governors of the now rested All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) that dissolved into the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time of the merger with other political parties ahead of the 2015 general elections.
In the interview under reference, Shettima reckoned that Buhari and Tinubu were the two most important personalities whose agreement to form the APC was consummated in 2013, and the subsequent collaboration between the North and the South West produced the Buhari’s presidency.
He emphasised that before supporting Buhari, the former Lagos State Governor shelved his own ambition and provided platforms for two presidential candidates from the North – former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on the ticket of the defunct Action Congress (AC) and a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who is today his National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu on the ticket of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), saying that on these two occasions, Tinubu had all it takes to run and become the president.
Hear him: “Buhari is immensely popular in the North. He has a cult-like followership of nearly 15 million people. But that never took him to the presidency until we had a handshake across the Niger with the West. Wrongly, he was assumed to be a Northern’ hegemonist’, a provincial politician, even a religious bigot by some of our compatriots in the southern part of the country. It was the South-West political machine that repackaged and resold the Buhari brand to Nigerians in 2015.
“It is pertinent to mention that when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was harassed, brutalised and chased out of the PDP, even some of our Northern brothers were treating him as a pariah. It was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that provided him with a sanctuary and platform to contest the 2007 presidential election. Again, four years later, he provided the same platform to another harassed Northerner, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to contest for the presidency under the ACN.
“Without the block support of the South-West, it would have been difficult for President Buhari to emerge as the candidate of the APC. Tinubu worked for Buhari in 2015 and in 2019. This is why some of us find it utterly disgusting when some of the folks who vigorously worked against Buhari’s ambition in 2014 have done some political somersaults and are now members of what I called Buharist Church of Latter Day Saints, hectoring down on us and liberally dropping the president’s name,” Shettima declared in the interview under reference.
When he was pointedly asked if there was a pact between Buhari and Tinubu before he supported Buhari’s ambition in 2015, Shettima, simply said “In my view, Asiwaju is sophisticated enough to understand that no one can rely on a futuristic political pact, four or eight years ahead. Even a week can be a long time in politics. No one can predict what could happen between now and 2023, let alone predict it as at 2015. In politics you can only guarantee something that is within your immediate reach.”
Shettima did all that even before he was considered a running mate. He did it genuinely, without knowing his boss would some day zero in on him as his running mate. So, his loyalty to Tinubu predates the 2023 election. And after their election in 2023, where he emerged the Vice President of Nigeria, he carried the loyalty further by ensuring that whatever his boss wanted, sees the light of the day.
For instance, Senator AbdulAzeez Yari, who wanted to be the President of the senate, is Shettima’s very good and close friend. But because his boss, he supported Senator Godswill Akpabio to emerge the President of the senate, since that was what his boss wanted. He could have behaved the way Atiku behaved in 1999. In 1999, Atiku’s boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted Evans Enwerem, Atiku wanted the late Chuba Okadigbo and the two worked at cross purposes. Again, if Shettima did not step in to prevail on Hon. Aliyu Betara, from his home state, to shelve his ambition, there was no way Hon. Tajudeen Abbas would have emerged the speaker of the House of Representatives. How can a man who did all that be accused of disloyalty by some hawks around the President?
Truth is, those parading themselves as political advisers to the President from the North lack the political sagacity and depth to advise the president correctly. I am aware that one of them was fired by his former employers for lack of performance, while the other was just an errand boy to some politicians from Katsina State. Besides, how many supports can these men galvanise from the North for Mr. President. If Mr. President still has the contact of one of his old friends, Senator Abu Ibrahim, the president should please reach out to him for more insights before the hawks around him destroy what is left of his goodwill in the North.
Kashim Shettima, as the chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) should be saddled with a role to play in pushing through the tax reform bills. Today, he is the leader of the North in this administration. Support him to play his role well. Once that is done, the required results would always come to the administration and it is Mr. President that takes the accolade. Do it and thank me later, Mr. President.
Maidabara writes from Kaduna
