Your Silence on Plot to Replace Shettima Worrying, Baba-Ahmed tells Tinubu

A former spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, has expressed concern over President Bola Tinubu’s silence on speculations that he may replace Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of the 2027 general elections. Baba Ahmed, who recently resigned as Special Adviser on Political Affairs in the office of the Vice President, said the […]

A former spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, has expressed concern over President Bola Tinubu’s silence on speculations that he may replace Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Baba Ahmed, who recently resigned as Special Adviser on Political Affairs in the office of the Vice President, said the growing narrative about Shettima being dropped should have been personally and publicly addressed by the president to put an end to the rumours.

There has been rising speculation in political circles about an alleged plan to remove Shettima from the 2027 ticket, with observers pointing to recent political developments and strategic endorsements that have excluded the vice president.

In June, a stakeholders’ summit of the All Progressives Congress in Gombe turned chaotic when some participants endorsed Tinubu for a second term without making any mention of Shettima.

The development further fueled concerns of a silent shift in political strategy.

Although presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga dismissed the rumour as a non-issue, insisting that Tinubu would decide on his running mate after the party’s convention, Baba Ahmed said this was not enough.

Speaking on Channels Television, Baba Ahmed said the situation called for a clear and direct statement from the president himself.

“I would be very curious to find out what it is that makes all these stories about dropping him (Shettima),” he said.

“I think, somewhere along the line, to be honest, the president should have done something a long time ago.

“If all these stories about dropping the vice president for somebody else, another, northern vice president, maybe a Christian, maybe from somewhere else, have absolutely no iota of truth, it would have taken just one thing: the president directly and personally saying, ‘Stop this nonsense.’”

He added that the president should have publicly affirmed his confidence in Shettima and dismissed the speculations unequivocally.

“I have confidence in my vice president, I work well with him, I am happy with him, and I want this nonsense about me dropping him now or in the future to stop. I will take a decision on who my running mate is in 2027 when we get there. In the meantime, we have work to do.

“But he didn’t say that. His people didn’t say that,” Baba Ahmed said.

He described the silence from the president as deeply unsettling.

“It’s worrying. Let me just say it is worrying. If what I have said is exactly what the president thinks, he should have said it. If he doesn’t say it the way I have, he should have found a way, but it should come from him, it should be direct, and it must be emphatic”, he stated.