Endorsing Kashim? — by Tahir Ibrahim

As Hon. Obiagbon would say” crinkum crankum”.. the best word to use as able description of the noises and discordant tunes around the fate of the Asiwaju/ Shettima APC presidential ticket; is crinkum crankum. I am guessing that all the crinkum crankum and the hulabaloo about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR; dropping or picking Kashim Shettima for a second term is virtually over. The time has come for that nomination and it seems more than likely that the winning ticket of 2023 would remain as we head for the 2027 polls. I was more than a vociferous supporter of Kashim Shettima during the 2022 nomination process. Infact it was Kashim’s political allure that convinced me 100% that Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu aka Asiwaju; Jagaban; is the right person to lead Nigerians after Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), the late Nigerian President and leader of the APC. Ofcourse I decided to support Jagaban as a party faithful and I was supportive even before the primaries. Shettima added the ginger to it all. I was drawn to Sen. Kashim Shettima long ago via my visits to Borno courtesy his friend and chief of staff, Sen. Abu Kyari, CON; who is an uncle of mine. Uncle Abu’s late dad, Brig. Kyari was a classmate of my dad, and addedly, Uncle Abu Kyari’s wife, aka mommy, is my mum’s younger sister. (My mum is aka Anti Yelwa). So my support for Shettima also goes a long way back.

In Sen. Kashim Shettima I saw “a war time master builder”, I also saw, “a war time master builder does it again”. These two are separate articles that highlighted Sen. Shettima’s progressive and reformative governance policies and deliveries during his tenure as Borno governor. In another piece written four years ago, a birthday tribute actually, titled, “Kashim @56!: through all the rudiments, has all the condiments”; I confessed that it was not tiring but rather scintillating and ever more interesting as I covered Kashim Shettima’s political/ leadership sojourn, starting from the 28th April, 2019. Our APC party leader Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Jagaban, was in Borno state to commission 432 resettlement houses in 13 villages. Jagaban also commissioned 13 brand new primary and secondary schools, as well as a luxury 26 apartments on 5 detached 3 storey buildings to serve as residence for medical doctors working with govt hospitals in the state. Hajiya Maryam Abacha, former first lady also commissioned a 250 bed ultra-modern women and children hospital in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. It was also named in her honor. President Buhari also commissioned several plants as part of an industrial hub/ plant housing several plants. Most notable was the 150MW capacity solar power plant in the state.

At the beginning of the Asiwaju for President’s movement to secure the APC nomination, I wrote a series of pieces, including: “Kashim: the Jagaban of Jagaban’s campaign”. In one of his most salient campaign vibes tone, he scolded us about the hacks amongst us with a poor sense of history that have so quickly and cowardly forgotten the path that led us to the choice of Asiwaju as our preferred nomination for the Presidential ticket of the APC in 2022. I was so excited by Kashim’s oratory skills and was bedazzled by his command of English and the stage presence to speak it. I sneered, wow! a Kanuri man with so much turenci in his hands? As a fulani banter partner of the Kanuris, I declared that the Fulani empire in Nigeria were finished (pun intended). Kashim did not relent from upbraiding our memories and stressing how Asiwaju was the father and host of all the compatriots that fled the country in the heat of the military govt’s clampdown on pro-democracy activists of the 90s. In theJagaban of Jagaban’s team article, I presented to the Nigerian public, my choice for the leadership/ head of the Asiwaju campaigns. I believed and still very much do; that Kashim Shettima was my VP pick as he was one of the most eloquent, and cerebral persons in the team. He is also one of the most prominent personalities too; as he was arguably the best performing governor of his time due to the insecurity that ordinarily would have obliterated his functions and achievements as governor.

Even after Kashim’s nomination as VP pick to Mr. President, in an article titled, “starboy 2.01”, which I had written during the 62nd annual general meeting of the NBA, I staunchly defended Kashim as he became a subject of ridicule and the topic of ridicule was his dressing to the NBA. Among very many pieces I have written on Shettima, the most recent and most central to today’s piece, was, “Shettima: passion not compassion” and it was more of a salvo to the north western politicians and their mouth pieces, who were ridiculously alleging that Kashim was, or would be picked based on compassionate grounds, thereby belittling his political weight, his intellect, his influence and his prowess across the north. It was intent on erasing that fact that Shettima was a war time governor who beat the odds to deliver dividends to Borno, and bequeath a leadership maestro like Gov. Babagana Umara Zulum. I lamented that their said insinuations were of the same style as the NBA ridicule, and I wasn’t going to sit and watch our VP from our dear north east being treated like some lightweight pushover. I thoroughly believe it is Mr. President’s prerogative to have a final say of whom he wishes to have or to continue with. I needed to remind the naysayers that Shettima actually beat other governors who sort of contested for the VP position. Fast forward to today, most governors today eyed or were eying the position again, and the fracas at the Gombe zonal APC event, eventually elicited the article tagged, “Shettima: passion not compassion”. Shettima’s passion for the Jagaban national project gave him the pedestal to stair up into national prominence in the Asiwaju school of politics, and most certainly not mere compassion as Jaafar Jaafar put it. In my piece, I summarised that the melee in Gombe, the resignation of Ganduje, and the “coalition dramedy” had really put VP Kashim Shettima on the front burner at the time (during north east Zonal meeting in Gombe ten months ago). But and the really big but, is that through it all, Mr. President has been full of commendations, public commendations of the energy, work-spirit, commitment, passion and sagacity of the Vice-President, Sen. Kashim Shettima. Your’s sincerely, who has been supportive of Shettima and has through the years covered the Shettima story since 2019, is more than convinced that: rattling the ticket at this material time can be counterproductive for us, the APC. As a Kashim enthusiast who has even been named Talba na Kashim, I also believe that in all fairness, Shettima has survived and thrived well under the leadership and mentorship of my able President, whom I have now christened, JAGABADAYAN NIGERIA. Yesterday, the Borno APC Caucus endorsed the Asiwaju/ Shettima ticket and I believe soon enough it will have the whirlwind effect across the caucuses Insha Allah. And “now here we go”, If I may cull from “Fabrizio Romano”.