Vice-President Kashim Shettima has revealed that former President Goodluck Jonathan once attempted to remove him from office during his tenure as governor of Borno State.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday at the public presentation of OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigeria Oil Block, a book authored by former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), Shettima recounted how the move was thwarted.
Shettima, who served as governor from May 2011 to May 2019, said that during the height of the Boko Haram insurgency, especially between 2011 and 2013 when Jonathan declared multiple states of emergency in the northeast, he faced mounting pressure and political attacks.
According to him, “There are two gentlemen seated here. Certain decisions are taken in a very rare circle. The President, the Vice President, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“In one of such conclaves, former President Goodluck Jonathan, with whom we have sheathed the sword and have now recalibrated our relationship, was muting the idea of removing this Borno governor.”
Shettima credited former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, for standing up to the President at the time.
“Aminu Tambuwal, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, had the courage to tell the President that, ‘Your Excellency, you don’t have the powers to remove an elected councillor,’” he said.
Despite the pushback, Shettima said the former President remained unconvinced.
“The President was still not convinced; he muted the idea at the Federal Executive Council,” Shettima added.
He went on to commend Mohammed Adoke for upholding the rule of law in the face of political pressure.
“He (Mr Adoke) told the then President that, ‘Mr President, you do not have the powers to remove a sitting governor, not even a councillor.’
“They sought the opinion of another SAN in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who said, ‘I’m concurring with the opinion of my senior colleague,’” Shettima recounted.
According to the Vice-President, that moment cemented his lasting bond with both Adoke and Tambuwal.
“That was how the matter was laid to rest. But that was how my relationship with Mr Adoke and Aminu Tambuwal became eternally sealed,” he concluded.
