By 247ureports.com
Vice President Kashim Shettima has told the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that divisions within the party worry him more than any opposition candidate in the 2027 election, and has warned northern leaders against backing President Bola Tinubu at the presidential level while undermining APC governors in their own states.
Shettima spoke on Saturday, October 17, in Abuja at the unveiling of the national secretariat of Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A), a northern coalition supporting the Tinubu/Shettima ticket. “Honestly, I am not afraid of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I am not afraid of a diminished Peter Obi. But I am more afraid of internal contradictions within our household,” he said. He urged leaders to rally round their governors, and said a strategy of pursuing the presidential race at the expense of governors “will not go down well with the system.”
He told the gathering that the contest is close and that Nigerians will return to the polls in less than 100 days, in the language of seeking their confidence “with humility about the work outstanding.” On Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, he urged members to take him on respectfully: “Go and perform. Go and defeat Baba Atiku. Defeat him respectfully.”
Shettima also laid out the party’s case on structure. He said the 176,845 polling units across the country can each be matched by the APC’s 361,045 officials from ward to local government level, “two to two.” He said 18 of the 19 northern states are in the APC, and that 15 of the 18 New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) members of the House of Representatives from Kano have crossed to the party, adding that the Kano governor is with the APC. He told appointees that they must prove their local strength.
Defending the administration’s record, he said Tinubu inherited foreign reserves of $3.9 billion, barely enough to import oil for a month, and Ways and Means borrowing of more than N27 trillion, and that Nigeria “was on the road to Caracas” before the president “literally saved the nation.” Kano Governor Abba Yusuf spoke on behalf of northern governors at the event and pledged their support for Tinubu, and APC national chairman Nentawe Yilwatda pointed to two road projects covering more than 900 kilometres in the North.
The warning follows days of visible friction in the party, including the video that appears to show FCT Minister Nyesom Wike declining to shake hands with Imo Governor Hope Uzodimma at the campaign council inauguration, and the feud between Wike and the Progressive Governors’ Forum over his cross-party Rainbow Coalition. Earlier in the week, Shettima said that those promising to rescue Nigeria cannot keep their own political households intact, a jibe at the opposition, which is also split between Obi’s Nigeria Democratic Congress and Atiku’s ADC. The opposition has dismissed the APC’s claims of strength, and the ADC had not responded to Shettima’s latest remarks at the time of this report.
