Former Vice President and presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, said that Kashim Shettima’s only achievement is turning Borno State from “the home of peace” to “hell fire.”
This was said by Atiku’s special assistant on public communications, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, in response to Shettima’s joke about him right after the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) announced its decision.
After the tribunal ruled in favor of Bola Tinubu and Shettima, Mr. Shettima said, “Atiku Abubakar is an elder statesman that I hold in very high regard, and anyone who knows the social and cultural interactions between the Fulanis and the Kanuris in the North will know that I have the freedom to throw all insults at him, and he will take it. He said this on Wednesday when he was answering questions about the ruling.
“We won’t send him to Dubai or Morocco to live out his days. I’ll send him back to Fombina. Shettima joked, “I’ll buy him goats, broilers, and layers so he can spend his days raising goats and broilers.”
Atiku, who used to be vice president, said that Shettima had done a terrible job as governor of Borno State and top security officer.
The statement said that it was funny that Shettima, who had the worst record of any Nigerian leader and had not been able to get the people of Borno State out of poverty, wanted to invest in Atiku.
It also said, “He (Shettima) loves to tell lame jokes every chance he gets. Last year, he said that Vice President Osinbajo should have sold ice cream instead of running for office. He said that Nigeria would need a leader like Sani Abacha later on.
“As part of his circus act, he went to the Nigerian Bar Association’s annual general meeting in a big suit, sneakers, and a tie that wasn’t tied well. Shettima needs to decide whether he wants to be a statesman or a Baba Sala of good memory.
Even if he only holds the high office of Vice President briefly, he is acting in a way that is not worthy of him.
Shaibu said that Shettima’s main job was to make fun of other people because he had nothing good to say about himself or his boss, Bola Tinubu, whose three months in office have done nothing but make poverty and inflation worse.
He remembered that Shettima was put in charge of finances as a commissioner and later became governor of Borno State. He also said that those who put him in office had high hopes for him because he had worked in banks.
“From 2011 until 2019, when he was governor, terrorists took over the whole state of Borno. He didn’t listen to a security report about an attack coming to Chibok, which led to the kidnapping of more than 250 schoolgirls.
“Specifically, the head of WAEC’s National Office in Nigeria, Charles Eguridu, said in 2014 that WAEC had warned Shettima about the dangers of having exams in Chibok and suggested that the students be moved to Maiduguri, which was safer. Shettima wouldn’t let the students move, so they were taken away. Half of them haven’t been seen since.
“Even though he left office four years ago, the mistake that was Shettima hasn’t been fixed for millions of people in Borno State. Instead of being sorry, he keeps acting like a clown and making dry jokes about other people without being asked.
Shaibu told Kashim to keep asking God for forgiveness for messing up the lives of so many people in Borno State.
“We tell Kashim Shettima that he should spend the rest of his life praying to God every day for forgiveness for ruining the lives of millions of people in Borno State instead of making jokes about people who have actually made people’s lives better.
“His lack of sophistication takes away from the beauty of the Vice President’s office. Men of honor have held that job in the past, and Shettima should look at how they treated the people as an example of how to behave. Shaibu said, “In any case, he would do well to use Atiku’s scholarship to go to a finishing school and learn how to act like a polished statesman.”