Vice President Kashim Shettima on Thursday described former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, as a political force whose relevance cannot be denied.
According to the former Borno State Governor, “You can hate him, you can love him, but you can’t ignore him.”
Shettima made the remark at the public presentation of OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3bn Nigeria Oil Block, a book written by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN). The event, held in Abuja, was attended by several political figures, including El-Rufai.
The Vice President’s praise for El-Rufai has led to renewed political speculation, especially in light of recent events suggesting tension within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over Shettima’s place on the party’s 2027 presidential ticket.
In June, an APC stakeholders’ meeting in Gombe—meant to rally support for President Bola Tinubu’s second-term ambition—descended into chaos after North-East delegates accused party leaders of deliberately omitting Vice President Shettima from official acknowledgements. The omission, by Zonal Vice Chairman Mustapha Salihu, triggered loud protests, with delegates chanting “Shettima! Shettima!” and warning against any attempt to sideline the region’s highest-ranking officeholder.
A Borno delegate, visibly angered, described the slight as “an insult to the entire region.” Another added, “This is a calculated attempt to edge out Shettima, and we will resist it with everything we have.”
Though then-National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje tried to pacify delegates—stating, “We are proud of his deputy, his Vice President, it is one ticket according to the Constitution”—the damage had been done. The meeting ended with many chanting, “No Shettima, no APC in the North-East.”
Similar instances have intensified rumours that Tinubu may drop Shettima from the 2027 ticket in favour of another northern figure. This has led some observers to speculate that Shettima could align with a growing opposition coalition that includes prominent northern politicians—among them El-Rufai, who plays a part in the formation of the opposition coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) platform.
At the Thursday event, Shettima also made a revelation about his past challenges in office. He alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan once attempted to remove him during his tenure as Borno State governor (2011–2019), describing himself as “the most demonised person” in Jonathan’s final years in office.
“In the last four years of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, I was the public enemy number one,” Shettima recalled.
According to the Vice President, Jonathan mooted the idea of his removal during meetings with top government officials.
“In one of such conclaves… Jonathan, with whom we have now recalibrated our relationship, was muting the idea of removing this Borno governor,” he said.
Shettima credited then-Speaker Aminu Tambuwal with resisting the move, saying: “Your Excellency, you don’t have the powers to remove an elected councillor.”
He added that former AGF Adoke reinforced that position during a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting: “He told the then President, ‘Mr President, you do not have the powers to remove a sitting governor, not even a councillor.’”
He said another cabinet member, SAN Kabiru Turaki, concurred with Adoke, which ultimately shelved the plan.
Critics say Shettima’s support for the rule of law during Jonathan’s time clashes with the Tinubu administration’s actions in Rivers State, where Governor Siminalayi Fubara is currently suspended under what many see as a politically driven emergency rule.
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