READING KASHIM SHETTIMA’S LIPS AT ADOKES BOOK LAUNCH

READING KASHIM SHETTIMA’S LIPS AT ADOKES BOOK LAUNCH

By: Inuwa Bwala

There is something about the vice president, Kashim Shettima, which many people tend to miss out. He relishes the use of anecdotes to buttress his points, especially at public meets.
When people cast their minds back to most speeches of the Vice President, they may tend to agree that they are always full of anecdotes and innuendos.

When he therefore narrated his harrowing experiences in the hands of the administration of former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, as a rider to the foundation of his friendship with Mohammed Adoke: former Attorney Genetal and Minister of Justice, many people were quick to impugn that, it was an innuendo to the Rivers State imbroglio, which led to the declaration of a state of emergency by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Like him or despise him, Kashima Shettima has a sound intellectual profunfity and is a wordsmith whose speeches or remarks are bound to be misunderstood or misinterpreted
Given widespread perceptions of a rift between the Vice President and his principal, people found a fertile ground to further enforce a narrative, which has been flowing in the social media for quite some time.

To some, it was the climax of what they hoped would be the situation. To others, it was the outpouring of Shettimas’ disapproval of the President’s action as it affects Rivers state. And yet to other, it marks the beginning of an end to a healthy political marriage between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his partner, Kashim Shettima.

But to those of us who understand the Vice President, viz a viz his relationship with his principal, his remarks was more of a historical referrnce, aimed at buttresding the point of a relationship, build on principled and patriotic display, during that era.

Unless one digs deeper than what was said and the context within which the remarks were made, one risks falling to the antics of those who are plotting to sow seeds of discord and possibly achieve their aims.

To me, Shettima merely fell into the hands of traducers, with his deeper intellectual reference to the role of Mohammed Adoke and Aminu Tambuwal in saving him from disgrace.

Anybody who is privy to the bond between Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, should be able to say, that the noise about a rift is a facade to a grandiose political conspiracy being hatched, against the Vice President in particular.

One fact remains that Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not have any issue with Shettima and is very unlikely to play to the gallery. Those who hope otherwise are certainly keeping a date with disappointment.