Shettima: My Advocacy for Power Balancing Twisted By Agents of Confusion

•You’ve done yourself, faith, standing a great injury, says NEF

Deji Elumoye in Abuja and John Shiklam in Kaduna

Vice President Kashim Shettima has disowned alleged attempts to twisting his recent utterances in support of the candidacy of Senator Godswill Akpabio as President of the 10th Senate to cause disaffection.

Shettima, in a statement by the Director of Information in the Office of the Vice President, Sola Abiola, said his support for Akpabio was not to look down on anybody or a section of the country but to underline the importance of diversity and justice.

But the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), has berated him over a recent comment attributed to him that the most incompetent southern Christian was better than the most pious northern Muslim for the presidency of the senate.

Shettima, in his release stated: “During an interactive session with senators campaigning for the emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Barau Jibrin to lead the 10th Senate, yesterday, Vice President Kashim Shettima emphasised the nation’s current political structure and made a case for the emergence of a Southern Christian and a Northern Muslim as the fairest balance to promote inclusivity at the centre.

“Senator Shettima’s statement was motivated by a profound awareness of the divisive factors within our great nation and was in harmony with the governing party’s pledge to ensure inclusivity across all regions and among all groups.

Shettima said his statement was “stripped of context and mischievously circulated as an attempt to minimise the suitability of Muslim contestants in the race for the Senate leadership. The remarks have not only been taken out of context but also misinterpreted to suit an agenda that sabotages our collective bid for unity.

“What Senator Shettima advocated during the meeting was that, considering Nigeria’s President and Vice President are Muslims, it would not be ill-advised for the lawmakers to choose a non-Muslim contestant, even if against a more qualified Muslim option, in order to achieve balance.

“It is alarming that such an unambiguous plea has been unfairly misconstrued to imply that the Vice President said the most incompetent Christian candidate is superior to a Muslim candidate. One can understand why this absurd interpretation would be found distressing and hijacked by those with a malicious agenda to push.”

The Vice President said the advocacy was a well-considered balancing strategy aimed to mitigate the potential for crisis within the country, “particularly by those anticipating the domination of leadership from the same religious faith in all branches of government as a signal.”

He said already a section of the political class was working along that line to use the outcome to deepen their campaigns of calumny against the country and the Tinubu administration.

According to him, “Some entities and individuals were covertly pushing for Muslim leadership of the National Assembly with the sole aim of using the instance to legitimise their grievances against the Nigerian state and to prove to their communities that they have been marginalised and must rise to cause chaos.

“This sheds light on the paradoxical situation, where the same lawmakers, who opposed a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket are now actively campaigning for political arrangements that would result in Muslims occupying all the highest four or five positions in the country.

“The Vice President wishes to distance himself from the wrong and dangerous inferences drawn by the public from his remarks. While some are made innocently and without mischief, there are entities that have seized on the story to cause further chaos that transcends the realm of power politics. This weaponisation of our divisions is why the Vice President appeals for inclusivity to prevent any agenda designed to undermine the new government and Nigeria as a whole.

But the NEF, in a statement yesterday, by its Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said the vice president had done himself, his faith and his standing a great injury with such comments.

“The nation has been made aware of comments made by His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the course of strengthening the cause for election of leaders of the 10th Assembly which the APC and the government prefers

“A particularly outstanding comment made by him is that under current dispensation, the worst, the most incompetent Southern Christian is better than the most puritanical Northern Muslim for the Presidency of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The Northern Elders Forum has cautioned the President Tinubu administration on many occasions to respect the rights and privileges of elected members of the Legislature to choose their leaders, and to conduct its campaign for its preferences with sensitivity and decorum.”

NEF said Shettima’s statement, “in the context of the commitment of the administration to determine the legislature’s leadership makes references to Muslim and Christian faiths in the most unbecoming and irresponsible manner imaginable.”

According to Baba-Ahmed, Shettima’s utterances, “deepens the worrying position of religious faith as a fault line in our politics today, and denigrates the place of an important value such as faith in conduct of elected leaders, whether they are Muslims or Christians.

“The suggestion that poor faith and incompetence can be preferred to piety and competence when it suits political interests sends damaging signals to a nation desperate for good leadership. A statement of this nature coming from a Northern Muslim who has earned his respect in the course of his political career is most unfortunate.

“The suggestion that the piety of leaders could be sacrificed for political exigencies offends a nation of Christians and Muslims who watch as leaders swear by the Qur’an and the Bible to protect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The Vice President has done himself, his faith and his standing a great injury with his comments, and the forum hopes he can find appropriate opportunities to assure Nigerians that the Tinubu administration will respect sensitive values that define us as Nigerians.

“It is instructive that leaders, who rode on the back of faith now turn around to advise that it is of no significance where their interests are at stake,” the statement stated, advising the Tinubu administration to respect the rights of the legislature to operate as prescribed in the constitution, and allow legislators a free hand to choose their leaders.

“It is the desperation to determine leaders of the legislature that is responsible for damaging gaffes such as the nation just heard from our Vice President, and it may not be the last damage that can be caused to our democracy and national cohesion,” the statement added.