President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress to sheath their sword over the nomination of the former governor of Borno State, Sen. Kashim Shettima, by the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as his running mate for the 2023 general election.
Tinubu had on Sunday announced Shettima as the APC’s vice-presidential candidate.
The Star had reported that the APC National Leader made the declaration while speaking to newsmen shortly after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari at the latter’s private residence in Daura, Katsina State.
The APC presidential candidate had said he picked Shettima as his running mate because of the former Borno State governor’s competency, capability, and reliability.
However, it was gathered that it took the intervention of Buhari to pacify the APC governors, who were angry that Tinubu had picked Shettima as the party’s vice-presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
It was further learnt that the President urged the aggrieved governors to support the Tinubu-Shettima ticket when they visited him at his residence in Daura on Monday.
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Sources at the private meeting between President Buhari and the nine APC governors said although Tinubu has the right to pick his running mate, they had not concluded their discussions with the APC presidential candidate before he went ahead to announce Shettima.
“At the meeting, the governors expressed their anger over Tinubu’s decision to pick Shettima. It was as if he didn’t even care about the opinion of the governors even though he will rely on them for mobilisation. Buhari, however, pleaded with them to accept Shettima since he is a loyal party member.
“We all watched the announcement on television just like every other Nigerian. Tinubu did not discuss this with anyone. He even admitted that he had not informed Shettima of his decision to pick him as running mate. This was not proper at all and the governors made this known,” PUNCH quoted an aide to one of the governors as saying.
An associate of Tinubu added that the two-term former Lagos State Governor was not supposed to have made the announcement in that manner.
He stated: “What happened was just like Tinubu’s announcement at the Presidential Villa in January when he told the media about his intention to contest.
“Sometimes, he makes these announcements in the spur of the moment. Many of us were shocked.”
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