Tinubu: Shettima Finally Reveals What He Said on Abacha, Blames Media for Misrepresentation
- The INEC has declared Sunday, September 28 as the beginning of the electioneering campaign ahead of 2023
- Major political actors have been attending different fora to sell their candidature to the electorate
- One of them is Senator Kashim Shettima whose recent comment triggered reactions among Nigerians
Hours after his comment on the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Senator Kashim Shettima, has shed more light on his statement.
Legit.ng reports that Shettima, who is the vice-presidential candidate of the APC, said he was misquoted on a recent comment he made which cited a reference to the late Sani Abacha.
Source: Facebook
According to TheCable, while speaking on Thursday, September 16, at the 96th anniversary celebration of the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos state, Shettima was quoted as saying Nigeria needs the “hospitality” of Abacha, former military ruler.
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The vice presidential hopeful had said the country needs a president with “a dose of ruthlessness and taciturnity” of Abacha.
He also listed some qualities of leaders such as Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdusalami Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida, and President Muhammadu Buhari, and said Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate, has such qualities.
Shettima had said:
“We need a leader with the patience and sense of responsibility and commitment, and somebody who understands the national psyche and mood of the nation of an Abdulsalami Abubakar, and in applicable circumstance, we need a leader with a dose of ruthlessness and taciturnity of general Sani Abacha."
Nigeria needs Abacha's ruthlessness, not his hospitality
Clarifying the comparison of Abacha to Tinubu in a series of tweets on Friday, September 16, the former governor of Borno said he did not attribute hospitality to Abacha, adding that he meant Nigeria needs a president who is ruthless like the late military ruler, to address insecurity.
He tweeted:
“The obsession with distorting one’s views to settle partisan scores brings to mind a certain WBC Commentary. ‘The trouble with deliberate bias,’ it says, ‘is that it cannot be erased by sound education’. The video of my speech in Lagos is out there for those sincerely curious.
“I never attributed hospitality to Abacha in my speech. I did a rundown of our past presidents and played up ‘the taciturnity and a dose of ruthlessness of a Sani Abacha’ to show we need strongmen to deal with the non state actors who’ve turned Nigeria into a vast killing-field.
“I was quick to tease the audience, appreciating the humour hovering around the hall, with the familiar jibe that nice men don’t make good leaders. By nice men I meant those who get easily manipulated and pressured to divert state resources to appeal to private expectations.”
Just like IBB, Tinubu is a Maradona, generous like Gowon, says Shettima
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Senator Kashim Shettima praised the leadership qualities of his principal and flag bearer of the party, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It was reported that at the 96th edition of the Yoruba Tennis Club on Thursday, September 15 in Ikoyi – Lagos state, Shettima likened Tinubu to a leader with a 360 leadership trait.
Shettima likened Tinubu to the former military head of state, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Source: Legit.ng
