Our reporter/ Vice-President Kashim Shettima on Thursday subtly distanced himself from President Bola Tinubu’s controversial removal of Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Fubara was removed from office on March 18, 2025 by President Tinubu in a move that was widely condemned by Nigerians but was ratified by a rubber stamp national assembly.
But speaking during the public presentation of Adoke’s memoir, titled ‘OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigerian oil block’ in Abuja, the Vice President who drew from his experience as a former governor of Borno State, noted that there was no constitutional basis for a president to remove an elected governor in Nigeria.
“Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was floating the idea of removing this Borno governor (pointing at himself), and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, had the courage to tell the president: You don’t have the power to remove an elected councillor,” Shettima said at the book launch of former attorney-general Bello Adoke.
He also commended Adoke for using his role as the attorney-general at the time to thwart Jonathan’s attempt to remove governors of northeastern states over insecurity in 2013.
“The president was still unconvinced, he mooted the idea at the Federal Executive Council, Adoke told the president: You do not have the power to remove a sitting governor,” the vice-president said. “They sought the opinion of another SAN in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who also said: I am of the candid opinion of my senior colleagues. That was how the matter was laid to rest.”
“I want to thank you for the courage to forgive those who have offended you. In the last four years of the Jonathan government, I was the public enemy number one,” he added.
Although Shettima did not directly address Fubara’s removal, but the tone of his prepared speech underscored his anger about the general issue of presidential interference in state affairs.
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