By Stanley Nkwocha
From years to months, months to weeks, and now just a matter of days, the nation would head to the polls to elect the next president of Nigeria. Needless to state that President Muhammadu Buhari, with the constitution of his transition team headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, ‘knows what time it is’ like the Americans would say.
There is no denying the fact that the change in the naira denomination along with the cash swap policy of the Buhari administration as well as the litigation subsisting at the Supreme Court has affected the mood for the 2023 General Election – attempting to, in very clear terms, derail it.
While the Federal Government struggled to compete with electoral campaigns in terms of attention, it is now clear that come Saturday, the ballots would be loud, loud enough to make a definite and emphatic statement on the resolve of Nigerians to protect their rights to democracy. Clearly, a new leadership for the country is in the offing!
I make bold to say that of the front runners in this election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) has run the most robust, technical, populist and indeed all encompassing campaign. With a unique style of campaigning, his lieutenants have left no stone unturned in marketing his vision and ideas as contained in his 80 page manifesto.
While criticisms of his age and the Muslim- Muslim ticket was made an issue at the initial stage, Asiwaju’s dexterity, vibrancy, energy and openness made capacity, sacrifice, experience, vision and political will to top the discourse ahead this election. Truth be told, Tinubu has indeed acquitted himself especially in terms of capacity and unison in the run up to the elections. He is undoubtedly not just the front runner but the expected favorite to win.
But beyond the rhetoric, permutations and political scheming of how this election would be won and lost, is the role of one character who has proven that in his choice of vice presidential candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, brought his class intelligence, unique political wizardry, experience and understanding of exceptional leadership qualities to the fore. His choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as running mate has paid off as finally the former Borno governor is the one puzzle that is set to do in Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party ( LP) in this presidential election.
To have a clear shot at the Presidency, it is my opinion that every presidential candidate must secure his base. While it can be argued that Tinubu has his Southwest base in the kitty and Peter Obi another strong candidate has the Southeast as a stronghold, PDP’s Atiku Abubakar sadly cannot lay claim to his Northeast base as a result of Kashim Shettima’s strong footing in the region.
While the former vice president will struggle to win his home state of Adamawa, he cannot as at today, beat his chest as dominating neighboring states of Taraba, Gombe and Bauchi States as both Borno and Yobe States, usually with huge voter turnouts, are under Kashim Shettima’s political enclave.
Shettima’s political doggedness has seen him move into Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi States ‘quietly’ resolving and reconciling powerful political figures in the region. It can be safely stated that these moves have left Atiku wounded and distraught in the home front and thus helpless. The depletion of the PDP’s support in its hitherto political bases in the Southeast and Southsouth further leaves the PDP’s candidate in a quagmire and hence his desperation for ‘votes – scurving’ in the Northwest which only holds his pathway to electoral victory.
But as if punching it in the bags of the opposition presidential candidates is not enough, Shettima’s reach, hard work, eloquence, sophistry, vibrancy and highly cosmopolitan nature has continually made ridicule of other vice presidential candidates and proving to be the last nail on the coffin of other presidential candidates.
Of the prominent vice presidential candidates in this election, only Yusuf Datti hails from Northwest. Sadly, in terms of prominence, impactful strategy and visibility, the LP vice presidential candidate has been a shadow of himself – surrendering the region to the exploits, visits, nexus and seeming political genius of Shettima, prompting not a few pundits to assert that not even his ward would Datti win on election day much more his local government.
I dare say, were the G5 Governors crisis inherent in the APC, Shettima would have been the man to fix it. Sadly, PDP’s vice presidential candidate and Delta State governor, Patrick Okowa lost the capacity to contemplate a resolution of the crisis as he was a major dramatis personae in the crisis that has rocked the PDP in this election.
When as governor of Borno State and chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Shettima travelled to all the Southeast states reassuring the Igbos of their safety when the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum led by Yerima Shettima, gave Igbos in the North the infamous quit notice, it was a leadership skill that sold him to Nigerians as a rare leader and bridge builder.
Recently, just after the APC presidential campaign in Kano, while his principal headed for Edo State for the next phase of campaigns, Kashim Shettima stayed put in Kano for three days reconciling all factions and ensuring that all stakeholders in this most crucial state are all on the same page ahead the polls. Needless to state that all issues in the state are today a thing of the past with Kano ready to vote enmasse for the APC. If this is juxtaposed with Atiku’s VP candidate, Okowa, under whose nose intra party crisis continues to unsettle its Delta, Edo, Abia, Rivers, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Lagos States chapters ahead the poll, it may well be safe to conclude that Atiku would be green with envy at Asiwaju. Ditto for Obi and Kwankwaso when their vice presidential candidates’ efforts are also calibrated.
Of importance too, is the identification and deployment of local and cultural politicking. Of all the vice presidential candidates none has transversed singly to all states in their bases again like Shettima. Unlike Atiku’s Okowa who is rarely seen campaigning or embarking on critical visits in the South or even embarking on local campaigns, nor even Obi’s Datti up North, only Kashim Shettima boasts of visiting virtually every traditional ruler up North, paying respects and further soliciting for their support. If every politics is local, then Shettima depicts a perfect understanding of this.
Shettima’s recent exclusive media adverts and mobilisations for his principal shows how far a vice presidential candidate could go in firming up support for his principal.
Alexander the Great’s, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion” statement might have been used over time in the depiction of strength in leadership and character, however, it will once more come into play on Saturday as days wind down to hours, minutes and eventually to seconds.
An established fact remains that Shettima’s massive involvement and presence in the presidential elections has been a huge win for the presidential aspiration of Bola Tinubu. It can be said that in the choice of Kashim Shettima, the presidential candidate of the APC struck gold.
Nkwocha, a member of the Public Affairs Directorate, APC Presidential Campaign Council, wrote in from Abuja.
