THE densely populated North West has held sway over the North’s hold on power for decades and it is by a mighty miracle of God that our Vice President Kashim Shettima, who comes from the North East, made it through the quarter finals, semi finals and finals of the 2023 electoral season to become the nation’s number two citizen. Merit, experience, religion and valour among many key criteria made it possible for the former two term Governor, and one term Senator to become Nigeria’s serving Vice President.
His choice from a maze of many former ‘Excellencies’ was hard fought and meritoriously won by Kashim Shettima. Despite the fact that he had already clinched the APC Vice Presidential ticket, and subsequently won the election alongside his boss and mentor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, The Jagaban Nigeria – political jobbers were still calling on him to resign from his God gifted position, to allow for the religious balancing of the new APC led government. Their wounds from the primary elections were still fresh and they continued to live in denial of the reality that a North Eastern candidate and now Vice President had emerged, beating their preferred candidates.
Since his emergence, tremendous campaigns of calumny were launched against Kashim and a couple of times, his spirited diplomatic language and speeches laced with political sagacity, were energised and weaponised against him as hate speech against the Islamic religion on one hand; and labelled as campaign goofs on the other. His pacifier language and entreaties, so as not to suffer the Islamisation stigma that Buhari suffered from his early Presidential bid days, and to protect the Asiwaju/ Kashim ticket from religious slander – became ready material for his castigation and de-marketing, as a pick to represent the Muslim North block.
He referred to himself as one obliged to be statesmanly, while The Sultan was predisposed to be the chief protector of The Islamic religion. His message was clearly an honest effort to assure Nigerians that as their number two citizen, he would be truly patriotic, and carry along all and sundry, irrespective of tribe or religion. Assaults were launched at him for the obvious reasons of weakening the popularity of the Asiwaju/ Kashim combo, which had tactically floored the PDP’s politics of religion, where they presented a Northern Muslim as a Presidential candidate, as against the notion that power was shifting southwards. That assault on Kashim failed. All efforts to derail the Jagaban train using religion as a clearly nuclear power in politics, also did not succeed. Jagaban won with Kashim solidly behind him as his number two.
Another popular assault on the personality of Kashim was the charge that he sponsored Boko Haram, when infact it had been there before he ever dreamed of becoming Governor, let alone our Vice President. This unfounded and unsubstantiated accusation was concocted to stop him from clinching the Vice Presidential nomination back then, when he was primed as the major contender from the North East.
It was also a potent tool to deflate the rising balloon of the Jagaban Nigeria stardom, during the 2022/23 campaign period. Notwithstanding all these calumnious attacks, The Jagaban/ Kashim ship still sailed. As a clear and obvious rebuttal of this unfortunate accusation, as Vice President, when Kashim picked his security aides, he quipped, “how can a sponsor of Boko Haram, pick Christians as his security details?” His communication was well intended to distance himself from the supposed sponsorship of Boko Haram when infact he led the fight against Boko Haram and rebuilding Borno State from the violence and destruction of the sect.
The sponsors of the castigations against him forgot the hadith of the prophet that says, “all deeds are judged according to intentions”. His intentions were in the direction of national healing from the most religiously charged and tribalistically driven campaigns Nigeria has ever witnessed. No! He wasn’t read like that. The readers insisted on the continuation of a religiously destabilising trend for the country. As number two, for God’s sake he is supposed to be a father of the nation and a brother to all.
Enter today, where Jagaban Nigeria has entrusted Kashim, alongside The Chief of Staff to Mr. President, Femi Gbajabiamila and The Senate President Ahmad Lawan to lead the mediation between the top contenders of the APC for the Senate Presidency and House Speakership. The Speakership looks settled already and the Senate Presidency battle is drawing more attention and heat.
In an effort to appeal to the contenders to allow for a religious balancing as campaigned against the APC before now, so as to have a nationalistic outlook as against a lop sided system, again his speech of diplomacy was obtained, hacked into pieces and sold to the proponents of the politics of religious intolerance. To them, our atmosphere must remain charged with religious sentiments as weapons to cause explosions left right and centre.
Do not forget that those that have worked hard to prevent the Jagaban Presidency are still insisting on causing so much disharmony between the different religious and tribal components of the Nigerian State. They feel that it is not over until it is all over. They feel they can still ‘scatter the place’. They won’t stop assassinating the characters of our number one and two citizens actually. But the God that saw the two through, will continue to guide and protect them.
The APC stand is on an Akpabio Senate Presidency with Sen. Barau as his Deputy. Kashim is working hard for the realisation of this objective and has even succeeded God willing. Popular opinion is to condemn his entreaties and politics of diplomacy. Unpopular opinion is to be supportive of him as he glides through the very tricky, murky and dirty waters of Nigerian politics and modern day democracy. I choose to be supportive of him, so that he navigates through with his good intentions. His intentions are what matter the most. His commitment to delivering what his boss and his party want is quite impressive. Kashim will deliver Insha Allah. May he succeed and may the Jagaban aka Dakare (dakare of Birnin Gwari) Presidency succeed.
Tahir is Talban Bauchi.
