BREAKING: Tinubu vs Shettima: How to Stop Nigerian Presidents from Removing Vice President at Will
Barrister Oladotun Hassan has dismissed the alleged rumour of a rift between President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, adding that Nigerians should not entertain the rumour that the president was planning to remove his vice.
The legal practitioner in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, suspected that the rumour could have been orchestrated by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other northern cabals who are working to “hijack” the presidency using the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Hassan then called for a change of the political climate in Nigeria, adding that people should be allowed to pick vice presidential forms and the elected separately with constitutional roles. He said such would remove the insinuation that the president can remove the vice president at will.
“In respect of the rumour of a rift between President Tinubu and the Vice President, I don’t think we should entertain unnecessary rumours or fight. I don’t believe there is a rumour of any destabilisation between the president and the vice president, except if there is an element of betrayal from the vice president. Except with the witch hunting of the northern cabals moving and rallying around themselves, even ministers within the government, Atiku and some other leaders from the north, wanting to use SDP to hijack power.
“Sometimes, the way things are being run in this country is not the fact that you have a vice president. When Atiku was Obasanjo’s vice president, Obasanjo said 99.9 loyalty is not loyalty, therefore, it must be 100 per cent loyalty. Are government officials loyal to themselves, to their party or to their secluded interests?
“To me, I don’t see any fight, except whereby there is a renewed strategy by the president to change the vice president and equally look at another northern state, in order to really play the political game. Politics is a game of chess, if you know that your strategy of where you are picking your vice for first term would not be as impactful as where you need to pick your vice for the second term, it is not a matter of war because it is a discretionary appointment by the president to pick his vice.
“It is not that we elected on the primary of winning the ticket as we elected presidents. It is a different thing that they’re not winning alongside the vice president. Maybe they should change the political climate for those who will be running within political parties, let people pick form for vice president and let people pick a form for president. So that this discretion of the president removing the vice president at will would not happen. It kills vision. You might not be able to say, at some point, when Buhari was there, that his vice was described as a poster boy.”
