Shettima’s fate is dangling. But he isn’t a Kofo. Dropping him would have consequences. It could fracture the APC’s North-East base. His loyalists have been fierce. Retaining him, however, could damage Tinubu’s ego. It could also embolden other rebels and limit Tinubu’s dominion. Shettima’s stealth missile at a book launch shows he is not a passive player. He is not a political wimpy newbie like Femi Pedro. By exposing Tinubu’s flaws, he may be tapping into a rich vein of Northern discontent.
The Yoruba say a lie can hide for eight years, but one day, truth will expose it. The evil that men do lives after them, yet the harm President Tinubu has inflicted on Nigeria’s democracy may not wait for his departure to unravel. Tinubu suspended Fubara like he owns the country. But Shettima’s calculated revelation has now left Tinubu naked in public. Will he fight or duck for cover?
When Tinubu trampled the constitution to suspend Governor Fubara, the conspiratorial silence of the noble made might seem right. The great Soyinka didn’t have an opinion. The National Assembly, in a shameful display of servility, endorsed the travesty. The courts, cowed into silence, looked away. Not even a petition by ten states could enliven the testicles of the Supreme Court. Astonishingly, Fubara himself thanked Tinubu for the transgression. It appeared evil had triumphed, and in a Nigeria prone to forgetting, the Rivers debacle seemed neatly buried.
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But truth never decays. It took a book launch, a seething heart covered with a smiling face, and a deft stroke of a story about former President Goodluck Jonathan for Shettima to expose Tinubu’s underbelly. Tinubu believed he had bought, fooled, or intimidated everyone, but he underestimated the stubbornness of truth, its guerrilla grip on consciences, and its availability as a ruthless weapon in grudge wars. The telling of hidden truths. Now, under Tinubu’s buttocks, the truth has detonated. He can’t hide from his own filth. The flies are buzzing.
Shettima didn’t have to name names to leave a dagger in the back of his boss. The summary of his story was that if a democrat, like Jonathan, was president, Rivers wouldn’t have been under military rule. Tinubu had the benefit of this remarkable precedent and the clarity of hindsight. But he chose waywardness. It’s unclear what advice his Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, provided him. Yet, Tinubu cannot claim ignorance. Critics ridicule his hypocrisy.
The story had seemed aimed at Jonathan. But when it ended, Tinubu had been upended. When Shettima was governor, Jonathan had tried to suspend him. He was suspected of politicising the Boko Haram insurgency. But Jonathan didn’t act rashly. He wasn’t a despotic wolf in prodemocracy sheep’s clothing. He didn’t misuse the declaration of a state of emergency for vendetta or political opportunism. He consulted the National Assembly leadership. The Speaker of the House, Tambuwal, didn’t behave like a glorified houseboy licking his master’s boots for crumbs and career progression. He boldly told the president he had no constitutional powers to suspend any elected official, let alone a governor. President Jonathan wasn’t convinced. He was intent on pruning Shettima’s wings. Obasanjo before him had suspended a governor or two, and the heavens hadn’t fallen. But Jonathan was mindful of perpetuating a lawless precedent. After consulting his Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke, and receiving the same cautionary admonition, he submitted to the rule of law, and Shettima was spared.
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Shettima didn’t have to name names to leave a dagger in the back of his boss. The summary of his story was that if a democrat, like Jonathan, was president, Rivers wouldn’t have been under military rule. Tinubu had the benefit of this remarkable precedent and the clarity of hindsight. But he chose waywardness. It’s unclear what advice his Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, provided him. Yet, Tinubu cannot claim ignorance. Critics ridicule his hypocrisy. As Lagos governor, Tinubu had hired Osinbajo as state attorney general to check federal excesses. As governor, Tinubu suffered federal overreach and fought against it vehemently. When Obasanjo suspended a governor, Tinubu challenged Obasanjo’s abuse of power. When Jonathan declared a state of emergency in some states without suspending the governors, Tinubu said Jonathan had violated the constitution. Yet, that very man became president and suspended a sitting governor. How does Tinubu live his life of contradictions, his hypocrisy laid bare every day?
Bad company corrupts good manners. Tinubu is perhaps unfortunate to lead with a National Assembly of clowns, eager to rubber-stamp his whims. Drunk with power and without parliamentary guardrails, he is bound to go astray. But critics say the fish has probably rotted from the head. In other words, the rapidly deteriorating, dysfunctional disposition of critical institutions is attributable to Tinubu’s decadence. Tinubu’s actions have undermined our already weak democratic structures. Shettima has validated the critics. Since Shettima has publicly dissociated himself and many others from one of the principal sins of this government, Tinubu must henceforth carry his cross.
By exposing Tinubu’s flaws, he may be tapping into a rich vein of Northern discontent. A gambit to secure his political future, whether on the 2027 ticket or beyond. Shettima’s calculated strike has exposed the cracks in Tinubu’s ‘On Your Mandate’ facade. But whether it’s the beginning of a political war or a strategic manoeuvre, time will tell. When Obasanjo fell out with Atiku, he ran him out of the party. Unlike Obasanjo, Tinubu has a tricky 2027 to overcome. Shettima is not doomed but he must brace for impact.
And there could be much more. Is the presidency riven? Some observers believe that Shettima hasn’t just told the truth; he has dared Tinubu. In local parlance, he has asked him ‘to do his worst’. Rumours have been rife for a while. Shettima, who had promised during the campaigns to lead government efforts to contain rampaging insecurity, has been a literal spare tire. Beyond being frozen out, rumours that Shettima would be dropped from the 2027 ticket have also been swirling. At the ruling party’s North-East stakeholders’ meeting in Gombe recently, the omission of Shettima’s name from a Tinubu endorsement caused an upheaval. Shettima’s followers have sworn to resist the political divorce. Against that backdrop, Shettima’s telling story could be more than truth-telling or hand-wringing; it could be the declaration of a political war.
Like Soyinka’s Abiku, Tinubu’s deputies never live. They come and go before their time. Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor was the first. Tinubu arranged her impeachment. She resigned. Femi Pedro was next. Pedro was supposed to be a political greenhorn, a politically passive neophyte. But once he began to harbour ideas of independent-mindedness, he was yanked off. Tinubu’s babasopecracy is a brand of autocracy that despises deputising as an affront to the imperial godfather; like a god unable to tolerate the idea of a deputy god.
Shettima’s fate is dangling. But he isn’t a Kofo. Dropping him would have consequences. It could fracture the APC’s North-East base. His loyalists have been fierce. Retaining him, however, could damage Tinubu’s ego. It could also embolden other rebels and limit Tinubu’s dominion. Shettima’s stealth missile at a book launch shows he is not a passive player. He is not a political wimpy newbie like Femi Pedro. By exposing Tinubu’s flaws, he may be tapping into a rich vein of Northern discontent. A gambit to secure his political future, whether on the 2027 ticket or beyond. Shettima’s calculated strike has exposed the cracks in Tinubu’s ‘On Your Mandate’ facade. But whether it’s the beginning of a political war or a strategic manoeuvre, time will tell. When Obasanjo fell out with Atiku, he ran him out of the party. Unlike Obasanjo, Tinubu has a tricky 2027 to overcome. Shettima is not doomed but he must brace for impact. The political landscape is treacherous. If he retains truth as his weapon and the North as his shield, Tinubu might hesitate.
Is Shettima doomed or is he poised to bring down Tinubu’s political roof?
Ugoji Egbujo writes from Abuja.
