‘I only said Nigeria needs dose of Abacha’s ruthlessness on insecurity,’ Shettima clarifies statement on ex-head of state

The All Progressives Congress (APC) vice-presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, claimed on Friday he was misquoted on a recent remark on the late former head of state, Sani Abacha.

Shettima made this clarification in a statement after he was criticised for comparing Abacha with the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The former Borno State governor, who spoke at the 96th anniversary celebration of the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos, said Nigeria needs the “hospitality” of the late dictator.

He said: “We need a leader with the patience and sense of responsibility and commitment, and somebody who understands the national psyche and mood of the nation of an Abdulsalami Abubakar, and in applicable circumstance, we need a leader with a dose of ruthlessness and taciturnity of Gen. Sani Abacha.

“Nice men do not make leaders. We need a leader with intellectual acumen, with the passion to catapult this nation to a higher pedestal. We need a leader who is not bound by regional or religious sentiment.

“We need a leader that has established such records of excellence and commitment to good governance. There is no one, with all due respect, that fits this better than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

However, in the statement, the APC vice-presidential candidate said he was not praising Abacha, saying Nigeria needed a harsh president to combat insecurity, much like the late maximum ruler.

READ ALSO: PDP tackles Shettima over comments about handling insecurity, terrorism in Nigeria

He said: “The obsession with distorting one’s views to settle partisan scores brings to mind a certain WBC Commentary. ‘The trouble with deliberate bias,’ it says, ‘is that it cannot be erased by sound education’. The video of my speech in Lagos is out there for those sincerely curious.

“I never attributed hospitality to Abacha in my speech. I did a rundown of our past presidents and played up ‘the taciturnity and a dose of ruthlessness of a Sani Abacha’ to show we need strongmen to deal with the non-state actors who have turned Nigeria into a vast killing-field.

“I was quick to tease the audience, appreciating the humour hovering around the hall, with the familiar jibe that nice men don’t make good leaders.

“By nice men, I meant those who get easily manipulated and pressured to divert state resources to appeal to private expectations.”

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