Atiku is a political tourist, we'll retire him to Dubai in 2023 - Shettima

Atiku is a political tourist, we will retire him to Dubai in 2023 - Shettima

Kingsley Chukwuka

September 12, 2022 9:00 PM

Shettima says Atiku cannot show Nigerians three people he mentored.

APC Vice Presidential candidate and former Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima. [Twitter/@Arewa_Source]

The All Progressive Congress (APC), vice presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima has hit at the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alh. Atiku Abubakar, calling him a political tourist, who only returns to Nigeria every electoral cycle.

Despite claiming Atiku is like a father to him, Shettima said that the APC would retire him to Dubai, adding that the 2023 presidential election would be the last Atiku would ever contest.

“We are going to retire him back to Dubai to go and relax,” he said, adding for people to see your worth, they need to see your output at home,” he told the APC National Integrity Movement in Abuja on Sunday, September 11, 2022.

According to him, “Atiku cannot point to three projects he brought to the northeast or to northern Nigeria for the eight years that he served as the vice president.

“He cannot show us three people that he has mentored.

“Is he even on good terms with past governors of Adamawa state? Admiral Nyako is with us. James Ngilari is with us. Asiwaju can boast of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, he can boast of Babatunde Raji Fashola, he can boast Lai Mohammed, Rauf Aregbesola, Kayode Fayemi, Femi Gbajabiamila, Abiodun Faleke, Joe Igbokwe, Ben Akabuaze. I can boast of Babagana Zulum, Senator Abubakar Kyari, Mohammed Ali Ndume, Betara Aliyu and Tahir Mongunu, Zanaib Gimba.”

The senator said he supported his principal Bola Tinubu out of a moral obligation, out of a moral conviction.

“What we have seen is his opportunity for national collaboration and national cohesion. When the frontlines that divide us were being manipulated for political ends, Asiwaju refused to swallow the pill.

“Nigeria’s of younger generation must know Asiwaju’s history of two decades past when he stood firm as the fulcrum to a despotic PDP government in this country when he was viciously maligned and ostracised and that was when he laid the foundation for modern Lagos state.

“He provided support and succour when the nation was enveloped in darkness and when we were having lots of destruction in the hands of military dictators, he was a sanctuary for victims of political witch hunt including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who was intimidated and harassed, dehumanised and chased out of the PDP.

“It was Asiwaju that gave him political sanctuary and a platform to contest the Presidency of this country in 2007. The same thing was repeated four years later when another harassed person, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was given the platform to contest the presidency of this country under the ACN.

According to the former governor, President Muhammadu Buhari would not have won the 2014 APC Presidential primary without the block support of the south west

“If power resides in the north for eight years, for God sake, it should move”, he said.

He noted that former US President Bill Clinton and his running mate were both from the southern United States, and nobody batted an eyelid because they have reached that level in their national political development.

“Out of sheer opportunism, the PDP is fielding a northerner as their presidential candidate and the press are not subjecting that to scrutiny.

“Where is the Nigeria media?

“Now, there is an improvement in power supply in the country and nobody is talking. There is war against banditry and nobody is talking”, he said.

Shettima called on the media to clampdown on the PDP for wanting to retain power in the north after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Kingsley Chukwuka