VP Kashim Shettima’s near miss, by Ochereome Nnanna

For nearly two months, our amiable Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima (GCON), held his breath. His principal, President Bola Tinubu, had emerged as the sole candidate for the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on 25th May, 2026, scoring 10.9 million votes during the party’s nationwide direct primaries. Tinubu chose to keep his deputy, party members and Nigerians guessing as to whether he would retain Shettima or succumb to his infamous “Jagaban disease”. Now, he can breathe out.

Tinubu, as governor of Lagos State (1999–2007), set the record as the only governor in the history of Nigeria to serve his two terms with three deputies – Kofo Akerele-Bucknor, Femi Pedro and AbiodunOgunleye. Many of Shettima’s teeming supporters and friends had feared that the former high performing governor of Borno State and chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum might suffer the same fate as Tinubu’s erstwhile deputy governors. The situation was not helped by unseemly happenings at party events in the North East. On 20th January this year, Shettima’s name and photo were omitted in a programme at a North East APC event in Maiduguri. This sparked an angry reaction in the audience, and a fuming Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, described the omission as “provocative”. It did not stop a similar incident from taking place at a party event in Gombe State.

Perhaps political speculators had thought the president was no longer interested in his deputy. They took to belittling him to boost the chances of their preferred candidate for his replacement as VP. The sudden trending of the name of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu  Dogara, as Shettima’s possible replacement also spoke volumes. Dogara, alongside names like David Babachir Lawal and Elisha Abbo, had held several high powered summits of Northern Christian leaders to oppose Tinubu’s Muslim Muslim ticket in 2023. But their efforts came to naught. Tinubu put political considerations (electoral power) and track record above sentiments in choosing Shettima.

Of the crop of governors who served between 2011 and 2019, Shettima towered, especially in the North, in infrastructure, education and rehabilitation of communities destroyed by Boko Haram terrorists. He was one of the pioneers of the “smart school” system in Nigeria, which has now become the rave in well governed states such as Abia, Enugu and others. As chairman of Northern governors, Shettima worked hard to mend fences between the North and the Igbo nation at the height of the Biafra agitations and the “Igbo quit notice” in 2017 triggered by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s divisive, Fulani expansion rule. Shettima led the Northern governors’ effort which resulted in the withdrawal of the threat by the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF). Besides, Shettima commands great influence among voters in the North East, even more than Atiku Abubakar.

Another issue that counts in Shettima’sfavour is his deft handling of his relationships with his handpicked successor, Governor Babagana Zulum, on the one hand, and President Tinubu on the other. During his handover speech before invited media chiefs in April 2019, the then Governor Shettima assured that he chose Prof. Zulum because “he will do better than me as governor”. Zulum’s second term will elapse in 2027. Throughout his tenure, Shettima has never tampered with the governor’s power to do his job. This is unlike AtikuAbubakar who, as VP, reduced his handpicked governor of Adamawa State, Boni Haruna, to a glorified houseboy.

Shettima understands the powers of a governor, which he used to maximum effect when his predecessor, Ali Sheriff, tried to pocket him. He is also a living witness to the absolute mess that his friend, Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has created with his fights with his own handpicked successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, in Rivers State. Shettima knows that Zulum has a volcanic temper, and that any rupture in their relationship was liable to negatively impact his (Shettima’s) promising political career. I am sure that if he and Zulum were fighting dirty, it would have affected his chances of going for a second term with Tinubu.

Though there is no such thing as a “perfect relationship”, Tinubu and Shettima have related quite well. Shettima’s pick for a second term says it loud. It takes extraordinary skills to deputise a man like Tinubu, whose depth of political discernment goes deeper than those of his contemporaries in the political battlefield. Tinubu has treated Shettima remarkably well. Amidst public criticisms, Tinubu allocated N5bn for the renovation of the VP’s official residence and approved over N10bn for the total refurbishment of his official Gulfstream 550 aircraft after it posed a danger to the safety of the VP.

Also, VP Shettima has represented the President and the country at many prestigious international events, possibly more than any VP has been privileged to do since 1999. The only thing we have not seen is Tinubu transmitting a letter temporarily handing over power to Shettima when he travels for extended periods. Wisely too, Shettima has not been seen to remotely orchestrate any fuss around this constitutional neglect. Shettima’s ability to fit in snugly between Tinubu and Zulum has brought him this political dividend and could pave the way for a brighter future after Tinubu’s era.

As we look to the oncoming political campaigns, which kick off in late September, I hope Tinubu and Shettima will give more thought to capitalising on their harmonious relationship to make life better for the ordinary Nigerian. They are walled away in the ivory cocoon of Aso Villa, far away from the daily experiences of the citizens suffering the scorch of their draconian economic policies and failure to secure the country as they promised in 2022/2023. Their harmonious relationship matters to Nigerians only if it impacts positively on good governance and makes life better for the ordinary people.

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