2023: Give Tinubu right of first refusal —Shettima

Ahead of the 2023 elections, a lawmaker and former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima has advocated for a return of the Presidency to the South after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure who represented the North for eight years.

This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by Shettima while delivering a keynote address at the Support Group Conference in Abuja.

He further stated that the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, should be given the right to first refusal in picking the party’s presidential ticket for the 2023 presidential election..

According to him, Tinubu was the best candidate for the Presidency after Buhari’s tenure.

“Some people say everything goes in politics, not everything goes in politics. We shall have minimal thresholds below which we won’t operate and the irreducible minimum is that after eight years of Presidency in the North, the logic, common sense, equity, justice and fairness demands that power should move to the Southern part of the country and who is better qualified? Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu should be given the choice of first refusal. More than any other person, he has sacrificed more for this democracy, for the APC,” Shettima said.

READ ALSO: My consultations on 2023 presidential election positive – Tinubu

He added that “in 2015, some aspirants with a very huge war chest were itching to cling the ticket of the APC, like the rock of Gibraltar. Asiwaju and his progressive team stood solidly behind the candidate of President Muhamadu Buhari. My simple question distinguished ladies and gentlemen is, where were the new members of what I call: ‘The Buhari’s Church of Later Days Saints’ where were they. We knew where their political loyalty lay in that particular convention when President Muhamadu emerged as the presidential candidate of the APC. Where were they?”

The lawmaker further berated Tinubu’s critics who were fixated on his age and the assumption that he was unfit to be the President while disregarding his achievements and work ethic.

Shettima said, “One of such is the mischievous fixation on his age and the wild conclusions that he’s physically unsuitable for the Office of the President. This obsession characterizes the thinking of those who have no understanding of Asiwaju’s incredible work ethic.

“Those who seek to make us go low hope to present the presidency as a brick-laying exercise. But that’s the work of a machine created by an idea, and who else to guide us towards manufacturing the best ideas to redeem this country?

“To derail us at this point is a futile ambition. The conversations we are prepared for aren’t pedestrian obsessions with the mundane but comparisons of ideas and track records of service to the nation.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now