…President, VP have excellent working relationship – Onanuga
By Caleb Ishaya, Abuja
Contrary to the news making the rounds of an alleged frosty relationship between President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, AljazirahNigeria can authoritatively report that the relationship between the duo is cordial.
In this vein, the duo would run on a joint ticket for the 2027 presidential election just like they did in the last general elections.
Besides, AljazirahNigeria recalls that in a recent interview with a national newspaper, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy,
Bayo Onanuga, spoke on the relationship between the two politicians, describing it as cordial.
“I’m not aware of any issues between the president and the vice president”. Onanuga stated. “From what I know, they have an excellent working relationship. All the speculation is just beer parlour gossip. People even say ridiculous things like Seyi Tinubu is the vice president, absolute nonsense”.
Speaking in the same vein, a
former Special Adviser on Political Affairs to Shettima, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has also denied any rift between Tinubu and his formal principal.
Baba-Ahmed, made this disclosure during his recent appearance on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme.
“No, I didn’t see any evidence of that. The personal chemistry between the president and the VP is excellent”, he said when speaking about the relationship between Tinubu and Shettima.
“The Vice President, as officially recognized by the constitution as the number two citizen how busy he is, what he does and doesn’t do, depends on the disposition of the president.
“The personal chemistry between the president and the vice president is excellent. I hear this from the Vice President, and I believe him.
“Sometimes, almost to a fault, Shettima always says how great the president is, that he is a good man who means well for this country.
“Sometimes, on one or two occasions, I have said to him, if he is so good, how is it we see a lot of the wrong things going on?”
Although the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC,
has stated that its Vice presidential candidate would be unveiled after the party’s primary for the 2027 general elections, pundits are of the view that the party would re-present both Tinubu and Shettima for the poll.
A stalwart of the party, Honourable Ibrahim Jirgi, has urged the party to repeat the joint ticket of both Tinubu and Shettima for the 2027 general elections.
The member, Media and Publicity Committee, 2023 Tinubu/ Shettima Campaign Council, stated do that: “As far as I am concerned, Kashim Shettima is a good political material. He is an asset to this government and the country in general. You can not fault his loyalty and you cannot underestimate his political antecedents. He shouldn’t be abandoned”, he said.
While speaking further, he stated that: “Their ticket is a joint one. The political endorsements by the stakeholders should be for both President Bola Tinubu and his Vice President Kashim Shettima. The marriage should not end up here. He has been a tremendous man in the administration”.
“Shettima is human, and not cantankerous. He is level headed. North East is proud of him. Northern Nigeria is proud of him, and Nigeria in general is as well proud of him. There is no doubt about it. Nobody can deny his intellectual capacity and political disposition to the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration”.
The former Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, to the late Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim of Yobe State, and erstwhile BBC London Correspondent, added that “Shettima is a number one unifier. Kashim Shettima is one of the best Vice Presidents in our political history in this country. Take it or leave it”.
While speaking against the backdrop of what transpired in Lagos State where Tinubu as governor worked with three deputies between 1999 and 2007, Onanuga stressed that “It’s wrong to say he has a pattern of discarding deputies. There were specific political circumstances each time. That’s what I’m explaining”, he said.
