Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, former political adviser to President Bola Tinubu, has expressed concern over the president’s silence on rumours suggesting he plans to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of the 2027 election.
Although the 2027 election is still two years away, rumours have circulated about an alleged plot to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Tinubu’s running mate.
In a June interview, at the height of the speculation, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga dismissed the claim as a ‘non-issue,’ stating that President Tinubu would choose his running mate only after accepting the All Progressives Congress (APC) nomination.
However, appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Baba-Ahmed, who resigned from his position in the Tinubu administration about three months ago, said the President should have personally debunked the rumour if it was truly a ‘non-issue’.
“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,” Baba-Ahmed said.
“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.”
He added, “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.”
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