2027: Replacing Shettima On Tinubu’s Ticket Will Be Disastrous, APC Forum Warns

The North Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has kicked against what it described as plots to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Bola Tinubu’s running mate in the 2027 general election.

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The chairman of the forum, Saleh Zazzaga, who gave this indication in a statement he issued in Abuja yesterday, warned that such a move is tantamount to a grave political miscalculation.

LEADERSHIP reports that Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, had protested the exclusion of Shettima’s photograph from a banner displayed at an APC event in the state.

The banner, which portrayed party leaders in the North-East, reportedly carried the pictures of President Bola Tinubu, five APC governors from the North-East region and the party’s national legal adviser, but omitted that of the Vice President.

The governors and other APC stakeholders were in Maiduguri for the party’s North-East zonal public hearing on the proposed amendment of the party’s constitution.

Following this development and other permutations, the North-Central APC Forum warned that “replacing Shettima would be disastrous for the party and thwart Tinubu’s re-election bid.”

The forum maintained that the North Central is not angling for the vice-presidential slot as the region is focused on contesting the presidency in 2031, after Tinubu’s tenure.

It argued that the north currently lacks a Christian candidate with sufficient grassroots support, national appeal and political structure to complement Tinubu’s electoral strength as a running mate.

“There is serious danger in changing a winning ticket. We totally and unequivocally reject calls and plans to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Bola Tinubu’s running mate in the next election.

“We sincerely advise President Bola Tinubu and the leaders of the party not to listen to such calls, because such a decision will turn out to be a grievous political miscalculation,” the forum stated.

It further accused those behind the agitation of acting against the interests of the party and the president.

“They do not want to see President Bola Tinubu re-elected. That is the only reason anybody with political knowledge would make such a request. If you check, you will notice that in 2023, most of their communities voted for Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

“Now if Peter Obi comes out again in 2027 on the platform of the ADC, what is the guarantee they will vote for Tinubu even if he drops Shettima and replaces him with a Christian? That is not going to happen.

“What is likely is that Tinubu will lose support among core northerners, thereby reducing his votes and giving the advantage to Peter Obi. Basic political calculation shows that dropping Shettima makes no sense and is actually very dangerous,” the statement said.

The forum equally dismissed suggestions that foreign powers, including the United States and other Western countries, might pressure Nigeria to abandon the Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2027.

“The Muslim-Muslim ticket gave us victory in 2023. Nigeria is an independent nation, and nobody is going to dictate to us,” it added.