The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has warned the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kashim Shettima not to be “irresponsible and disrespectful”.

Atiku said in light of a recent comment by Shettima, the administration of Bola Tinubu will be “anti-entrepreneurship”.

Shettima had criticised one of the businesses of Abubakar at an event in Lagos. He said being an owner of a table water company does not mean he understands the economy.

“And believe me, the ability to sell bottled water doesn’t make one an expert on the economy,” Shettima had said.

But in a statement signed by Paul Ibe, his media adviser, Abubakar said any business should be valued.

Watch your tongue
Abubakar said politics should not make anyone utter “irresponsible statements”.

“It is with utter dismay that we listened to the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu and his running mate talk condescendingly about other presidential candidates at a gathering that they invited members of the private sector to on Tuesday,” the statement reads.

“The remarks from the candidates of the APC show gross irresponsibility and disrespect.

“It is indicative that the Tinubu-Shettima administration will be anti-entrepreneurship and business.

“One would have thought that the duo would use the advantage of such a gathering to talk about solutions that their party, APC, has foisted on the country. Rather, they went on the ultra highway of political indecency.

“Any business that produces products, creates jobs and delivers dividends, especially in this era of the APC administration when the country is bleeding jobs is an asset and should not be mocked.

“It is irrelevant if it is a small business or a big business. And for Shettima, it is more shameful he will denigrate business that employs large chunk of people in the Northeast.

“Even Atiku’s opponents have acknowledged the business resume. That has seen him being engaged in businesses covering farming, animal feed, beverages, banking, logistics, polymer and plastics, education, among others. Employing thousands directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly.”

Apologize to Nigerians
The PDP presidential candidate said Shettima should apologise to Nigerians, especially those who benefit from his business.

“Politics does not confer on anyone the license to make irresponsible statements,” Abubakar said.

He said Shettima should have used the opportunity to discuss what he and Tinubu intend to do for Nigerians.

He said Shettima “chose to embarrass their guests, using their audience to play vile political games”.

“For someone who self-appoints as the APC national leader, it is ridiculous that the presidential candidate of the APC failed to proffer solutions to the economic woes that his party has foisted on Nigerians in the past seven years,” the statement reads.

“Unlike Tinubu who sat idly by and watched his APC ruin Nigeria to the current sorry state, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar has been consistent in proffering solutions to the myriads of ineffective policy options of the APC administration.

“Atiku, it was, who first raised the alarm about the debt burden that the APC has thrown Nigeria into. It was also Atiku who continued to call the attention of the nation to the need to diversify the economy away from heavy dependence on the exploration of crude oil. Atiku, again, was the one who said that the quickest path to lift the majority of Nigerians out of the poverty belt, is for the government to give incentives to the private sector in order for them to create more jobs for Nigerians.

“Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Atiku pioneered the private donor relief funds. Which opened the gateway for other Nigerians of means to follow suit. In providing succor to people who were worst hit by attendant self-isolation in management of the pandemic.”

Bokoharam has no shame

Nigeria politicians are just like comedians

Shettima is just so irresponsible and callous, always looking mean like a dreaded terrorist




Vote Wisely, for the sake of your future and that of your kids

Am not surprised by the way some elderly-men politicians utter words during campaign which shows the level of their IQ.
Listen we have outgrown such lousy politics and expect enlightening speech to take us to our dreamland not fighting and backbiting!

OBI2023

No source??
If Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, becomes president next year, it is not only his exclusionist Muslim-Muslin presidency that would unsettle Nigeria, but also his would-be deputy, Alhaji Kashim Shettima. With Shettima’s inherent tetchiness and truculence, he would be gratuitously provocative. And with his uncouthness and indiscretion, he would be utterly divisive and toxifying. Truth is, a Vice-President Shettima would be unlike any civilian vice-president in Nigeria’s history.

But that proposition stands on another critical one that we must discuss first, namely: no previous presidential candidate in Nigeria did what Tinubu has done. I’m not referring to the devilry of his Muslim-Muslim ticket. Rather, I’m talking about his deliberate decision to pick a long-standing political ally and close associate as his running-mate. None of the past leading presidential candidates behaved in that manner.

Consider the evidence. Shehu Shagari barely personally knew Alex Ekwueme before making him his running-mate; MKO Abiola had no prior close political or personal relationship with Baba Gana Kingibe; Olusegun Obasanjo was not Atiku Abubakar’s buddy; Umaru Musa Yar’Adua hardly personally knew Goodluck Jonathan; Jonathan himself had no prior long-standing political or personal relationship with Namadi Sambo; and Muhammadu Buhari wouldn’t, prior to 2015, regard Osinbajo as a political soulmate.

But Tinubu puts personal friendship and loyalty above all else. As Lagos State governor, Tinubu had three deputy governors within eight years, having triggered the impeachments of two of them. So, a plausible interpretation is that he doesn’t want to work with a vice-president with whom he has no cosy, bonded relationship. Thus, he picked as running-mate a long-standing political ally, who ran his presidential primary campaign and was neck-deep in the shenanigans that secured him victory.

Given Tinubu’s style of politics, this is potentially dangerous. His feudalisation of Lagos State politics and government is based on treating the state as a personal fiefdom, whereby he, the feudal lord, is surrounded by ultra-loyal serfs, who all seem to have sworn to an oath of secrecy. There must be real fear that a President Tinubu and a Vice-President Shettima would put their personal loyalty above open government; that their cosiness would trump good governance. Sadly, the omens are bad!

Recently, Shettima audaciously carved out functions between himself and Tinubu. He said that if they won next year, he would be “in charge of” security while Tinubu would handle the economy. Essentially, Shettima was reversing the traditional and constitutional roles of president and vice-president. Traditionally and constitutionally, the vice-president, as chairman of the National Economic Council and head of the Economic Management Committee, leads on the economy, albeit reporting to the president. But the president, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is undisputedly in charge of national security. For a vice-president to be “in charge of” security, he must have control over the security chiefs, who are usually answerable to the Commander-in-Chief. A feasible proposition? No, it’s a recipe for utter dysfunctionality!

Indeed, come to think of it. Why would someone who, as state governor, ignored intelligence warnings about the abduction of the 276 Chibok girls in 2014, some of whom still remain in captivity, be so arrogant and insensitive as to say he would be “in charge of” security if he became vice president? And why would a presidential candidate that prioritises the national interest agree to such a warped idea from his running-mate? No previous vice-presidential candidate displayed such a muscular and ambitious tendency.

But, in truth, there are worrying parallels between Tinubu and Shettima. Last week, Shettima listed Tinubu’s attributes that he admires. Speaking at the 96th anniversary celebration of the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos, on September 15, Shettima said, among other things, that Tinubu has General Ibrahim Babangida’s “situational pragmatism and Maradonic skills” and General Sani Abacha’s “taciturnity and ruthlessness”.

Of course, considering how Tinubu manoeuvred his party’s leadership, delegates, and fellow aspirants to secure the presidential ticket, none would doubt his Maradonic or Machiavellian skills. And seeing how he turned Lagos State into a captive fiefdom, his ruthlessness can never be questioned. Taciturnity? Well, try and ask Tinubu about his past. These are the qualities Shettima praised to high heaven, but they are not the attributes Nigerians need in their leader.

Which brings us to Shettima himself. What are his unique attributes? And are they fit for purpose? Well, first, there’s a consensus that the former Borno State governor, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics, is well read and eloquent, with a fondness for quoting great authors. But as Isaiah Berlin says in his great essay ‘The Hedgehog and the Fox’, knowledge is not wisdom. Knowledge is having considerable information; wisdom is using it in a way that shows good judgement.

Unfortunately, Shettima often doesn’t exercise wisdom in his words and actions. He showed this character flaw during his aggressive management of Tinubu’s presidential primary campaign when he insulted virtually every opponent, including saying that “nice men” like Vice President Yemi Osinbajo “should be selling popcorn and ice-cream”. He showed it when he wore sneakers to the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, later boasting that he did so “deliberately” to “mock” his detractors. Hardly vice-presidential!

But if those examples are trivial, consider this. The only defining issue in Nigeria today is restructuring. But what did Shettima say about it? In a viral video, he said: “Restructuring my foot.” Really? Dismissing such a critical national issue so uncouthly?

All this matters because, truth be told, if Tinubu wins next year, Nigeria would be more turbulent and divided than it has been under President Buhari. In such circumstances, a belligerent vice-president with a tendency for tetchiness would exacerbate the situation. Nigeria is inherently volatile and prone to crisis. It needs a calm and thoughtful vice-president who can help douse tension, not one that will inflame it through reckless and provocative comments. Shettima simply doesn’t fit the bill.






My dear Christians, it has been clear to us from the onset that APC, Bola and Kashim never had the intention or plan that offers the Northern Christians any sense of inclusion through any tangible roles in their government”.

“Those with major political influence on them are mostly religious bigots of the hegemonist flavour and some self-centred sycophants of the evil kind. So instead of reconciliation which would involve offering some important positions to Northern Christians, they have decided to go for broke and ignore the interests of Christians of the North”, he emphasized.

He further stressed that, “And, broken they will be indeed. We noticed this trend in APC right from its registration in 2014 up to the 2022 convention where the overriding goal seemed to have been to exclude northern Christians from all the organs of the party”.

“How anyone expects APC to win the 2023 presidential election under this climate befuddles the mind. I do not know why this saying keeps coming to mind: “those whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad” but it bears restating. It is a pity that Bola has chosen to throw away the Presidency which was within his easy reach to grab”, he added.

According to Babachir Lawal, “As for us northern Christians and other Nigerians who share in our vision of a united and peaceful Nigeria devoid of tribal and religious exclusion, we will continue with our struggle and are very very confident of victory. After all, the God who allowed Nigeria to be inhabited by a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society intended that we all should live in peace and harmony as brothers and sisters all created in the image of God”.

He declared that, “We are on a mission from God and are confident of victory. So, we fear no one and can be intimidated by no one. We are confident that Nigerians, especially sensible Northern Nigerians, will come to appreciate this fight for justice, equality and peaceful co-existence”.

The former SGF explained that, “Quite a number of Nigerians have reached out to Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara and I and to some of the leaders in our eminent group of Northern Christian politicians to sheath our swords and instead go for negotiations with the APC. I now want to respond to this” .

According to him, “We have so far not taken the road to reconciliation because in the first instance, neither the APC as a party nor its presidential candidate has bothered to seek us out for reconciliation even though early on, our doors were left open for such. We only get to learn of their views through vile propaganda in the media courtesy of their rabid attack hogs whom they have procured in abundance”.

“There are of course some “Christian” turncoats and “Judases” who, driven either by moral turpitude, poverty or greed, have hired themselves out as agents and spoilers of this noble Christian course. To this group, I wish to recommend the study of the biographies of Judas Iscariot and Ahithophel in the Bible. Be careful to note how their lives ended”, he added.

He then expressed determination saying, “We are buoyed by Psalm 2:1-4 which reads thus: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples’ plot in vain? The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take council together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying ‘let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us’. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derisions” (ESV). “Aluta continua victoria ascerta