The Office of the Vice President has clarified Vice President Kashim Shettima’s comments about the support President Bola Tinubu received from northern governors ahead of the 2022 All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha, the office said Shettima’s reference to six northern governors who “believed in and supported” Tinubu was limited to political consultations and alignments ahead of the APC primary in June 2022.
The clarification followed remarks by Shettima a day earlier that only six of the 19 northern governors had supported Tinubu’s presidential bid in the 2023 election.
Speaking on Wednesday at the palace of the Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, during the turbaning of Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq as the Sardauna of the Ilorin Emirate, Shettima said: “You all know that we have 19 states in the North. Out of these, only six actually believed and supported Tinubu.”
He identified former Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello and AbdulRazaq as two of the six governors but declined to name the others, saying he wanted to avoid controversy.
The Vice President also said Tinubu had reconciled with northern governors who did not support his presidential bid following the 2023 election.
“After the 2023 election, President Tinubu hugged and forgave all other northern governors that did not support him. That is a mark of a good leader,” Shettima said.
However, in Thursday’s statement, Nkwocha said the Vice President’s reference to the six governors was specifically about the period before the APC presidential primary and should not be interpreted as suggesting that northern APC governors did not support Tinubu after he emerged as the party’s candidate.
“The reference by the Vice President to six northern governors who ‘believed in and supported’ President Tinubu was strictly in the context of political consultations and alignments that took place before the APC presidential primary in June 2022,” the statement said.
Nkwocha said northern APC governors rallied behind Tinubu after the primary and played important roles in the campaign that culminated in his victory in the 2023 general election.
“After the primary, APC governors in the North rallied around the party’s candidate and played important roles in the campaign that culminated in President Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 general election,” he said.
The Vice President’s office said Shettima holds the northern governors and other APC leaders in high regard and recognises their individual and collective contributions to the party’s success and Tinubu’s emergence as its presidential candidate.
Nkwocha added that Shettima regretted any interpretation of his remarks that suggested otherwise, saying the clarification was intended to place his comments in their proper context.
