By Umar Audu
A former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, has said that a frontline APC Presidential aspirant, Bola Tinubu, has the capacity to secure victory for the party in the 2023 elections, warning that “any attempt to explore options would be catastrophic”.
Mr Shettima, who is also the Director-General of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, stated this while speaking at the Journalist Hangout, a TVC News current affairs program, monitored by our correspondent.
He said: “If our party is desirous of winning the 2023 elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is almost a fait accompli.”
“Amongst our presidential aspirants, and with no intent to diminish any of our illustrious countrymen, Asiwaju is the only candidate with the pedigree, political IOUs and reach across length and breadth of this country to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and even overwhelmed the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar because of his statue and pedigree”.
“Any attempt to explore other options, the party has every right [because] we are in a democratic dispensation, but I’m afraid it will be catastrophic to the party.”
Reacting to a trending comment made by the presidential aspirants, Mr Shettima, who is one of the prominent northern elites rooting for Mr Tinubu’s presidency, accused political opponents of distortion and deliberately quoting the presidential aspirant out of context
Mr Tinubu had during a meeting with delegates in Abeokuta on Thursday said it was his turn to become the president having supported President Muhammadu Buhari to become the president in 2015.
Reacting, Mr Shettima reaffirmed that Mr Tinubu had played a pivotal role in Mr Buhari’s victory in the primary election and presidential elections in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
“Whether Asiwaju opponents like it or not, whether they are willing to admit it or not, he played a pivotal role, not only in the emergence of President Muhammadu as the candidate of the APC but in the ultimate election in 2015,” he added.
