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Kashim Shettima
Kashim Shettima

Vice Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the 2023 poll, Senator Kashim Shettima, has been removed as the patron of the Coalition of Arewa Youths for Peace and National Development (COAYPANU), over remarks he made against the standard bearer of Labour, Party Peter Obi.

Shettima, during an interview on a Arise TV had said Obi could best be a president in Igboland with the claim that he has no political structure to win next year’s poll.

He had said: “Peter Obi can only become a President in Igboland but definitely not in Nigeria. Nigeria is too big for him to handle.

“He has no leadership ideology nor experiences like President Muhammadu and our incoming President in the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

But COAYPANU’s National President, Mohammed Gwadabe, in a statement yesterday, said Shettima’s attack on Obi was uncalled for which necessitated his removal.

“Considering the weight of the provocative and divisive statement made by our patron, Alhajji Kashim Shettima which is against the spirit of unity we stand for, and following consultations from members across the 19 states of Northern Nigeria, and approval from National Executive Committee in our emergency congress held, we, by this statement, announced the immediate removal of the APC Vice Presidential candidate as our patron.

“We are can’t associate ourselves with someone of Shettima’s standing who, despite piloting the affairs of his native Borno State as governor for two consecutive terms, still does not know that Nigeria is for everybody, irrespective of tribe, religion and cultural backgrounds.

“The statement he made against Peter Obi and Igbo presidency is his personal view and not that of our organisation which he was a patron at the time of the provocative statement,” he said.

According to Gwadabe, the statement was a reflection of the former Borno governor’s state of mind, adding that such a disposition showed that he could not be trusted with the highest office in Nigeria, or anywhere in the world.

“The era where Arewa youths just accept whatever choices, or decisions made by the APC, is gone for good, and that point must not be taken for granted.

“Henceforth, Northern youths, who are distinguished in every right, shall vote character and competence, while relegating tribe and religion to the background, as far as elections that will decide their future are concerned.

“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians, especially our youths and Northern elites, to, in the interest of our diversity and unity, condemn – in the strongest term – this unpatriotic statement capable of igniting ethnic tension in the already-charged polity.

“We hold that such crass propagation of bigotry must not be allowed in a decent society such as ours that is multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and secular in nature.

“We are mindful of the fact that, as youths from the Northern region, we are, no doubt, at the receiving end of the insecurity plaguing the nation, with attendant deaths, destruction, and hunger.

“As a matter of fact, there is hardly any part of the North that is peaceful today, as insurgency, banditry and kidnapping have become second nature.

“May we, therefore, use this opportunity to task our leaders to eschew bitterness in their pursuit of political power, knowing that as a fragile nation, all efforts must be geared towards the stability and peace of Nigeria,” he added.

1 COMMENT

  1. I congratulate my brothers the Arewa youths for their decisive action, I pray that all youths in country will stand on their against hatred and hate speech, stand against tribalism and religion to make Nigeria work again.

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