President Bola Tinubu’s former political adviser, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has said the President’s silence over persistent rumours that he plans to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of the 2027 general election is wrong.
Despite the fact that the next presidential election is two years away, speculation has continued about an alleged plot to replace Shettima on the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.
In June, amid heightened rumours, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga dismissed the claims as a “non-issue.” He explained that Tinubu would decide on a running mate only after securing the APC’s nomination.
Baba-Ahmed, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, however, said the President should have personally addressed the matter if it was truly baseless.
“I would be very curious to find out what it is that makes all these stories about dropping him (Shettima). I think, somewhere along the line, to be honest, the President should have done something a long time ago,” he said.
According to Baba-Ahmed, Tinubu could have ended the rumours with a clear statement affirming confidence in his deputy.
“If all these stories about dropping the Vice President for somebody else, another Northern Vice President, maybe a Christian, maybe from somewhere else — have absolutely no iota of truth, it would have taken just one thing: the President directly and personally saying, ‘Stop this nonsense. I have confidence in my Vice President, I work well with him, I am happy with him, and I want this nonsense about me dropping him, now or in the future, to stop.’
‘I will take a decision on who my running mate is in 2027 when we get there. In the meantime, we have work to do.’ But he didn’t say that. His people didn’t say that.
“It’s worrying, let me just say it is worrying. If what I have said is exactly what the President thinks, he should have said it. If he doesn’t say it the way I have, he should have found a way, but it should come from him – it should be direct and it must be emphatic,” he said.
