Ismail Omipidan
When American comedian, Groucho Marx defined politics as “the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies,” he might not have had Nigeria in mind.
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Yet, his definition perfectly captures the current political atmosphere in the country, especially with regards to those bent on forcing us, the narrative of a phantom war of attrition between Vice President Kashim Shettima and his amiable boss, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In the corridors of power, it is not uncommon to see some people in authority wield influence carelessly.
They not only do anything they like but also use all available tools to settle perceived scores, all in the name of politics. And in doing so, they often forget past favours and long-standing loyalties.
As someone who has known Kashim Shettima long before he ventured into politics, I can attest that he understands the power game and the essence of unwavering loyalty.
He gives 100 per cent of himself to any cause he believes in, with complete commitment and sincerity.
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I will recall just three instances to buttress my point.
First, as governor, whenever his predecessor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was in town, Shettima would abandon his official vehicle for him, a symbolic gesture of respect.
When they were in a room, even before the eyes of everyone, Shettima would sit on the floor while his former boss sat in a chair.
His aides were usually enraged by this profound display of humility and loyalty to his former boss.
When the boss eventually came for his head, deploying every available tool to fight him and undermine his authority, some of Shettima’s aides urged him to retaliate.
They even offered to release damning documents that could have silenced Sheriff permanently. But Shettima refused. He would not toe that line, choosing instead to uphold his principles and loyalty, even in the face of betrayal.
Realising they were unable to convince Shettima, I was contacted to get him to see reason to do as requested.
He was in Kaduna that weekend,
I travelled down to meet him. I engaged him for about an hour. In the end, he simply said “Mallam Samaila, Ali Sheriff made me governor.
For that singular reason, I will remain eternally grateful to him.
I will, therefore, not be party to anything that will send him to prison with regard to how he ran Borno.
Don Allah, mu ci gaba da aiki mu. Allah zai kare mu ( let’s continue with our work, God will see us through).”
I am aware that during those travails, some of the top politicians in the state chose to stand on the path of truth and justice.
I can say with all sense of modesty that Shettima never fought the Sheriff. It was the Sheriff who waged war against Shettima.
He made himself a tin god, but in the end, God demystified him by putting him where he rightly belongs. That is one.
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The other scenario had to do with the election of the president of the senate in 2023, a contest between the now incumbent Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Abdulaziz Yari, a long time friend and political associate of Shettima.
For those familiar with Nigeria’s political history, they would know that the rift between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, actually began with the election of the senate president in 1999.
While Obasanjo settled for the late Evans Enwerem, his deputy canvassed and mobilised for the late Chuba Okadigbo.
But in Shettima’s case, despite his personal relationship with Yari, he stood firmly with his principal’s choice.
He deployed his political brinkmanship to ensure the emergence of Akpabio, President Tinubu’s preferred candidate.
I say this without sounding immodest: had Shettima chosen to go the way of Atiku, Akpabio would have lost that election scandalously. What more could you ask of Shettima? How else does one define loyalty?
Like Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, a veteran journalist and poster man of Journalists’ Hangout on TVC, rightly observed yesterday during the show, there is a clear distinction between removal and suspension.
He went further to say that there is a difference between the picture being painted by Shettima of what transpired during his time as governor of Borno and the Rivers case.
I agree with him.
Therefore, using Shettima’s analogy, which was aimed at establishing how the relationship between him and the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, SAN kicked off to mean he was antagonising his boss, is irresponsible, callous and uncalled for.
These are two unrelated events. While former President Goodluck Jonathan had a personal political rift with Shettima, President Tinubu intervened in the Rivers State crisis to prevent the removal of a sitting governor and avert a potential descent into anarchy.
The Rivers State matter was purely political, while that of Borno was security-inclined.
The story of how the All Progressives Congress (APC) was birthed and the pivotal role played by Kashim Shettima, driven by his unwavering loyalty to Asiwaju Tinubu, is well known to some of us.
Equally well documented, both by Nigerian journalists and political historians, is how Shettima stood out and boldly identified with Tinubu at a time when most northern APC politicians considered it politically risky, if not outright sacrilegious, to publicly support his presidential aspiration.
He chose conviction over convenience, and history will remember him for that.
In all of these, those promoting the imaginary rift between President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima, with the sole objective of seeing the vice president yanked off the ticket in 2027 can only succeed if Allah wills.
Shettima is a strong believer in the power of the unseen. He has held on to it over the years and Allah has never failed him. May Allah come through for him in this very circumstance as well.
To Shettima, my dear friend and brother, take solace in the words of former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who spoke on Wednesday at the launch of Mallam Garba Shehu’s book, held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre.
He described the job of the Vice President as the most difficult job in the world, noting that every action taken or not taken by a Vice President is often viewed with suspicion, not necessarily by the boss, but by the courtiers and power brokers around him.
He further said: “It was Umar Ganduje, former Chairman of APC, in his famous work, ‘Deputising,’ who humorously describes the conundrum that deputies face.
And he once said to me, ‘When you are a deputy or you are vice president, you are in a difficult position, and then he would pause like a great storyteller that he is.
He said every action you take, is likely to be misinterpreted, not necessarily by your boss, but by the numerous people around him.
He says, ‘If you humbly walk behind your boss, they will say, look at him, he’s not cooperating with his boss.
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If you walk by his side, they will say, see this man, he thinks he’s equal to the boss, and if you walk in front of him, they will say, he thinks he’s better than his boss.”
Allah ya kare ka, your Excellency, sir.
Omipidan, a journalist and an author, writes from Abuja and can be reached @OmipidanIsmail