Former political adviser to President Bola Tinubu, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has said President Tinubu should have personally debunked the rumour suggesting plans to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of the 2027 election, if it was truly a ‘non-issue’.
Voicenews reports that rumours have circulated about an alleged plot to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Tinubu’s running mate in 2027 although election is still two years away.
Recall that at the height of the speculation, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga had 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.
Meanwhile, Baba-Ahmed, who resigned from his position in the Tinubu administration a few months ago, said the President should have personally debunked the rumour if it was truly a ‘non-issue’.
His words, “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.
“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.
“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,” he added.
