President Bola Tinubu has been urged not to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima in the 2027 presidential election
Titilope Anifowoshe, a legal practitioner, made the plea in an interview with Legit, while extolling the loyalty and contributions of Shettima to Tinubu’s government
Anifowoshe also x-rayed the electoral values of Rabiu Kwankwaso, who has been rumoured to be planning to join the APC and causing a rift between Tinubu and Shettima.
Amid the controversies surrounding the planned defection of Rabiu Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), it was rumoured that President Bola Tinubu was considering dropping Kashim Shettima as his vice presidential candidate for the former Kano governor in the 2027 election.
Speaking on the controversies, Titilope Anifowoshe, a legal practitioner and political commentator, in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, called on the president to balance the equation, noting that politics is about addition and not subtraction.
While the legal icon extolled the loyalty and political relevance of Shettima in ensuring stability in Tinubu’s government, she also pointed out the electoral values of Kwankwaso, considering the outcome of the 2023 Kano election.
Recently, several controversial reports alleged a rift between Vice President Shettima and President Tinubu. Rumours suggested that Tinubu was considering dropping Shettima in the next election, with Kwankwaso being touted as a possible replacement.
Anifowoshe compared Shettima and Kwankwaso, and concluded that the best is for President Tinubu to find “creative ways” of bringing the latter into the party without dropping the former in the next general elections.
She said: “Vice President Kashim Shettima has proven himself to be a loyal, dependable, and intelligent deputy to the President. He understands the intricacies of governance and remains a stabilising force within the administration. Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, on the other hand, is a formidable political heavyweight with significant influence, particularly in Kano.
“The electoral arithmetic is indeed compelling: Kano, with a population of 16.3 million (as of 2024), delivered nearly a million votes to Kwankwaso’s NNPP in 2023, while APC secured just over 500,000. By contrast, in the Borno population of 6.1 million (2022); APC won comfortably with over 55% of the votes. These figures show the strategic importance of Kano in any national election.
“However, the solution is not necessarily to dislodge Shettima. There are creative ways to bring Kwankwaso into the APC fold, strengthen alliances, and consolidate Kano’s support base without destabilising the existing power structure. Politics is about addition, not subtraction, and a smart coalition-building approach will serve the APC better than sacrificing loyal allies.”
