VP Says Reference to Six Governors Was About 2022 APC Primary, Not 2023 Election
The Office of the Vice President has clarified Vice President Kashim Shettima’s remarks about the support President Bola Tinubu received from northern governors ahead of the 2022 All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary.
In a statement 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 before the June 2022 APC primary.
Shettima had made the remark 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 Ilorin Emirate.
The Vice President said only six of the 19 northern governors had supported Tinubu before the APC primary, identifying AbdulRazaq and former Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello as two of them.
He, however, said Tinubu later reconciled with northern governors who had not supported his presidential bid.
“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.
Clarifying the remark, Nkwocha said the reference to six governors was strictly about political consultations before the APC presidential primary and should not be interpreted as suggesting that northern APC governors did not support President Tinubu after he emerged as the party’s candidate.
“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,” Nkwocha 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 President Tinubu’s emergence.
Nkwocha added that Shettima regretted any interpretation of his comments that suggested otherwise, stressing that the clarification was intended to place the remarks in their proper context.