The once restless former governor of Borno State, and now the Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, is becoming sober. He is fast throwing off his toga of brashness. He used to think that combativeness was a way of life. But experience has taught him otherwise. He is beginning to learn. He now understands the value of bridge-building in politics.
Just last week, he shelved politics momentarily and spoke from the heart. That was at the book launch of the former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the time Shettima was governor of Borno State. Shettima remembers Adoke fondly. He told the gathering that it was this Adoke who, as Attorney General, advised Goodluck Jonathan, as president of Nigeria, not to remove Shettima as governor because he had no constitutional powers to do so. Jonathan was responding then to the Boko Haram menace in Shettima’s Borno State.
Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, particularly in Borno State, was a major source of distress during the Jonathan presidency. There was, at that time, a concerted effort by northern power players working in cahoots with pretentious human rights crusaders from the southwest to discredit the Jonathan administration. Boko Haram insurgency, particularly in the area of abduction of schoolchildren, was believed to be a deliberate act of sabotage aimed at presenting Jonathan and his government in bad light.
Shettima, whose state of Borno was the hotbed of Boko Haram activism, was believed to be decidedly anti-Jonathan. He betrayed that tendency both in words and in action. It was easy to see through his bias against Jonathan. The dimension of Boko Haram insurgency at that time had all the imprint of insider collaboration. Shettima was at the centre of that duplicity. For this and related reasons, Jonathan as president had every reason to go after Shettima. Perhaps, he made moves towards cutting Shettima to size. Removal of the governor through the proclamation of emergency rule in his state would have served his purpose. But from what Shettima told us last week, Adoke came to the rescue. He advised Jonathan against it and he listened.
Shettima has said it as it was then. But the naked truth from him is burning like a furnace within the Presidency. The government in which he is the second in command has committed an error that Jonathan refrained from. His boss, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had, contrary to the provisions of the constitution, removed a governor from office. The illegality of the removal of the governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, by Tinubu is one of the sore points of the Tinubu presidency. Experts in law and constitutionalism have asserted without reservation that the president has no constitutional powers to remove a governor. Regardless of the wrongness of the action, Tinubu has continued to put up a bold face. But Shettima has just burst the bubble. He has spoken glowingly of the Chief Law Officer of the Federation who advised the president he served under against illegal and unconstitutional actions, the type that Tinubu, who Shettima is working under, has committed. By so doing, Shettima has cleverly indicted Tinubu for his action in Rivers State. That is quite straightforward. It does not require any extraneous interpretation.
Shettima has, by his revelation, pricked the conscience of the Tinubu administration. He has gnawed uncomfortably at its effect. He has caused an irritation; even a stir, within the presidency. But because we must pretend about everything, the presidency is struggling to give Shettima’s revelation a different meaning. They do not want Nigerians to begin to feel that he told the inconvenient truth because all is not well between him and the president. The presidency will rather have us believe that all is well between the two topmost citizens of the country.
But those who know are just grinning. They are amused that someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. This is especially so in the light of the fact that the rift between the president and his Vice is an open secret. Nigerians know that the vice president is merely ambling along. He has long been shoved aside by the president. That is why it is being strongly rumoured that Tinubu would not pair up with Shettima in the 2027 presidential election.
But should Shettima be worried by the stir that his home truth has caused? I do not think that he should. As a matter of fact, he is not. Unlike many an outsider, Shettima understands why things are going in a certain direction. He was rewarded, in the first place, for his daring role in the dethronement of Jonathan. If there was one single most telling disruption that the Jonathan presidency suffered, it was the Boko Haram menace. Those who described Jonathan as clueless did so principally on account of his inability to contain the onslaught of Boko Haram.
The then opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, mocked him ceaselessly on account of that. Jonathan’s failure in dealing with the emerging terrorism was feasted upon. In fact, it even became a selling point for his main challenger in the 2015 presidential election, General Muhammadu Buhari. It was believed, even by the foreign Press, that Buhari as a retired General would be in a better position to tame the monster of terrorism in Nigeria. In the end, Jonathan lost so much grounds. Buhari emerged. But like Jonathan, he also failed spectacularly in the war against terror. Nobody demonized Buhari for that. What mattered to the critics was that Jonathan, the whipping boy, had gone with the winds.
Shettima was at the centre of the plot against Jonathan. He got his reward through Tinubu’s presidency. From the look of things, Shettima has been rewarded adequately. It is time for him to step aside so that someone else will step in. That is what Tinubu is plotting. With Tinubu, there are no long-term allies. Once you are used, you can be disposed of like a rag sheet. Anybody who is in doubt should contact Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje.
In the face of this Tinubu approach to political alignment or realignment, the likes of Shettima should not weep.
In fact, Shettima does not appear to be weeping. He is taking the reality of his situation in his stride. Like an uncaged bird, Shettima can now afford to sing and fly freely. That is what he has started doing. We are likely going to reap more bountifully from his free state in the days ahead.
QUOTE:
“Shettima has cleverly indicted Tinubu for his action in Rivers State. That is quite straightforward. It does not require any extraneous interpretation. He has, by his revelation, caused an irritation; even a stir, within the presidency.”
