As the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 elections, Bola Tinubu must have laughed his head off when in August 2022, his running-mate, Kashim Shettima, hubristically dished out presidential responsibilities at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Lagos.
“I have been in the theatre of conflicts for 18 years, I will lead the troops, and my principal is an economy wizard who has transformed Lagos into the third largest economy in Africa. He will concentrate on the economy,” he bellowed to the surprise of his listeners. “By God’s grace, I will handle the security, and not only handle the security, I will lead the troops to battle across the length and breadth of this country,” he said even when he knew that Section 130(2) of the 1999 Constitution gives the president the exclusive authority of the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces.
That unforced error was an indication that Shettima had no knowledge of the man he was pairing with for the presidency. And two years thence, the vice president must be wondering what went wrong. Not only was he not assigned the implausible task of leading Nigerian troops, he has been stripped of many responsibilities, so much so that access to his principal is now a privilege. To underscore his increasingly unenviable position, there was a report in April that he was denied access to the presidential villa. Despite denial by the Presidency on April 19 claiming that the report was a “deliberate and well-planned orchestration of falsehood,” discerning Nigerians were not fooled.
The insinuation of “total clash in the Presidency” and “discord at the highest levels of government” were all vibes from the corridors of power and not the making of so-called disgruntled elements. So, when Tinubu’s 2027 campaign posters started appearing on billboards across the country without Shettima’s image and the presidency, once again, said all was well, many knew it was sheer subterfuge – the very political game that Tinubu is adept at playing. But the deceit was not going to last forever and now the gloves are off. The Presidency has delivered the political sucker punch to Shettima. And characteristically, they chose his North-East zone as the appropriate place to deliver the message that he has become a persona-non-grata, an unwelcome person in the Tinubu political family.
At the APC stakeholders’ summit in Gombe on Sunday, top officials of the party, including Mustapha Salihu, National Vice-Chairman, North-East, and the National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, endorsed Tinubu as the party’s unopposed candidate for the 2027 presidential election without Shettima. This angered the delegates and both men were smuggled out of the venue. Not even the subsequent endorsement of both Tinubu and Shettima by Bukar Dalori, the Deputy National Chairman, North could calm frayed nerves. The meeting ended abruptly. But that was transferred aggression. Shettima’s problem is neither Ganduje nor Salihu but his principal, Tinubu. Both party officials are only errand boys who came to Gombe to deliver the message from the god in Aso Rock.
To be sure, this is not the first time an attempt would be made to exclude a vice president from a second term ticket. In 2003, attempts were made to exclude then Vice President Atiku Abubakar from President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reelection ticket. But Atiku had the political muscle then to rebuff the move. It is doubtful if Shettima has such political muscle. But even when Atiku succeeded in getting his name on the ticket and PDP won the election, his vice presidency was dead on arrival, literally.
But this time, the Tinubu presidency showed its hand too early – two years to the elections. Tinubu is one politician who does not take prisoners. Shettima is being openly humiliated and it is a deliberate attempt to bait him into a fight where he does not have all the aces, if any at all. If he decides to fight, chances are that he may not even last till 2027. He will be impeached by the Godswill Akpabio-led National Assembly. But even if Tinubu decides for the sake of political expediency to retain Shettima on the ticket, he will be made miserable afterwards, far worse than what Atiku suffered.
But I am surprised that some Nigerians are surprised at Shettima’s travails in the corridors of power given President Tinubu’s antecedents. Before his inauguration on May 29, 2023, the president’s spin doctors promoted him as the best thing that happened to Nigeria’s democracy. He is a quintessential democrat, an astute politician, they ululated; a technocrat par excellence with the axiomatic Midas touch in public office. He is the father of Modern Lagos, they crowed, and a rule of law aficionado. Nigeria is lucky to have him as president, they chorused. All he had to do in Abuja to pull the country back from the precipice was to recreate the ‘Lagos magic.’
Tinubu amplified that chorus in his inaugural speech: “Our administration shall govern on your behalf but never rule over you. We shall consult and dialogue but never dictate. We shall reach out to all but never put down a single person for holding views contrary to our own. We are here to further mend and heal this nation, not tear and injure it.” He further listed five principles, which he said will guide his administration. And first is a solemn vow: “Nigeria will be impartially governed according to the Constitution and the rule of law.” But to borrow a local parlance, all the hype was nothing other than ‘packaging.’ Tinubu is the exact opposite of the picture painted of him by his minions.
As it has become obvious in the last two years, the president is not a democrat and has no respect for the rule of law. He has the reflexes of a dictator – a maximum ruler who brooks no contrary views. For him, politics is a zero-sum game where the winner takes all, a fact that was lost on Shettima when he was busy allocating portfolios.
He forgot that his principal holds the inelegant record of being the only governor in this Fourth Republic that had three deputies in eight years. He took oath of office on May 29, 1999 as Governor of Lagos State with Senator Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor as deputy. But by 2002, the Afenifere chieftain had fallen out of favour and was humiliated out of office. Even Femi Pedro, the investment banker with whom Tinubu started his second term in 2003 as deputy governor, equally fell out of favour, was demeaned and forced to resign. He completed his second term with Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, a chartered accountant, who today has the unflattering record of Nigeria’s shortest serving deputy governor – 13 days only.
But I am less worried about Shettima’s fate. My real worry is the redundancy of the office of the vice president. Granted, in Nigeria, the vice president’s constitutional role is primarily to deputise for the president because the 1999 Constitution vests executive powers in the president, who can delegate same to the vice president, along with ministers and other public officers. So, while it is true that the executive powers of the vice president are hibernated until the president is unable to function, it needs be stated that the vice president statutorily is not an assistant to the president as the office on its own is fully and independently presidential, vested with statutory membership of key executive and security bodies, including the National Security Council, National Defence Council, Federal Executive Council, and National Economic Council.
The tragedy of the Nigerian situation is that despite the fact that the office of the vice president is fully and independently presidential, the extent of its powers is largely dependent on the president’s willingness to delegate significant responsibilities. And since Nigerian presidents, particularly in the Fourth Republic, are not known for their largeness of heart, vice presidents end up being what the late Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former Governor of Anambra State, pejoratively called spare tyres!
So, has Tinubu thrown Shettima under his second term bus? Most likely! And that raises another fundamental question. Since Nigerian presidents and governors have proven over time to be lone rangers, why is the country wasting billions of Naira on offices that are clearly redundant? Shouldn’t those offices be abrogated? But most importantly, why do politicians still bother to become worthless spare tyres in the name of deputy governor and vice president after seeing the macabre fate that is the lot of past occupants because even as Shettima is being humiliated, many are lobbying to replace him even when they know that the same fate awaits them sooner than later.
