- Safiu Kehinde
The All Progressives Congress’ (APC) North-East Zonal National Vice Chairman, Mustapha Salihu, has explained the reason behind his omission of Vice President Kashim Shettima while endorsing President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 General election.
NPO Reported that the zone’s consultative meeting had ended in chaos on Sunday following Salihu’s endorsement of Tinubu without mentioning Shettima.
Clash had erupted between the Northeast delegates at the meeting held in Gombe state as Shettima’s omission raised suspicion of the possibility of the Vice President being dropped as rumoured.
Reacting to the incident while speaking on Channel’s TV Politics Today programme on Monday evening, Salihu claimed that his speech was misinterpreted and ill reported.
The APC Northeast Vice Chairman recalled eulogising Shettima during his address before Tinubu’s endorsement.
This, according to him, was also done by other speakers at the event.
“I think this trouble was largely caused by the constant misinterpretation and ill reporting done by the media. I think you could have played my speech fully or even at least the last paragraph before the endorsement.
“The last paragraph of my speech before the endorsement was eulogising Kashim Shettima, recognising him as our son, and that we stand by him as people of Northeast. And also eulogising the National Security Adviser, recognising him as our son who we are really proud of, and we stand by him.
“And also mentioning all the ministers and other parastatals given to Northeast indigenes and thanking Asiwaju for that before I now called for endorsement of Asiwaju as the sole candidate of the APC.” He said.
Salihu however explained that the omission of Shettima’s name during the endorsement was borne out of the fact that only one ticket is available during the party primaries for executive positions which are basically local government chairmanship ticket, governorship ticket, and the presidential ticket.
He explained that the Vice President position is usually determined by whoever emerged as the Presidential candidate.
“It will interest you to know that in party politics, we have only one ticket during the primaries for executives- the local govt chairman, executive governor, and the president.
“There is no party guideline or constitution that allow the President to run with the party primaries with a running mate.
“It is only one ticket for only the President. It is after the primaries when the President becomes the candidate that he will now pick a running mate.
“That informed the decision of not only me but even the Yobe governor and Borno governor during their speech they talked about Kashim Shettima, praised him as our son, and expressed their confidence in him and endorse the President.” the APC Northeast Vice Chairman said.
He further dismissed the rumours of discord between the Shettima and Tinubu.
This, according to him, is usually peddled by those he described as ‘crisis entrepreneurs’ and ‘trouble profiteers’.
“Administration of the party and party activities is not done on social media platforms neither on pages of newspapers or the screen of television.
“Party is run administratively within the office. So, if you hear any rumour or any conspiracy theories, I don’t think we should base our party activities like the APC Northeast summit on that.
“This rumour you are talking about is inevitable. All administration has such rumour between the principal and the Vice President.
“Normally, some people we call crisis entrepreneurs, trouble profiteers, they will manufacture those kinds of rumour where there none.” He said.
While also attributing the crisis to the feeling of insecurity amongst some politicians, Salihu debunked claims of discontentment within the zone following the meeting which he claimed was well planned.
“Also, some politicians are very insecure. I want to believe that if you are secured and sure of yourself, all this rumours should not worry you.
“Anybody that tells you that there is discontent in the office, I’m in the office. You can see I’m in Yola and I have contact with members of the zone from Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, and Yobe.
“It will interest you that we did not sleep that night preceding the summit. We stayed all night brainstorming on this matter.” He added.