President Bola Tinubu and VP Kashim Shettima during APC campaign rally
A prominent All Progressives Congress (APC) figure, Prof. Haruna Yerima, has confidently asserted that President Bola Tinubu will secure victory in the 2027 presidential election by retaining Vice President Kashim Shettima as his running mate, dismissing calls to abandon the Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Speaking in response to claims by the Northern Ethnic Nationality Forum in Abuja on Saturday, Yerima, a former House of Representatives member, labeled the group’s statements as “insane and unfounded,” according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The Northern Ethnic Nationality Forum had urged Tinubu to replace Shettima with a Christian from Plateau, Benue, or Taraba to counter allegations of an Islamisation agenda and warned that retaining the Muslim-Muslim ticket could strengthen the opposition’s campaign
. Yerima, however, rejected these concerns, stating, “The claim that the APC may lose the 2027 presidential elections if President Bola Tinubu adopts Vice President Kashim Shettima as his running mate is insane and unfounded.”
He further dismissed the notion that opposition candidates like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi could defeat a Tinubu-Shettima ticket, calling it “a jaundiced and amateur political permutation without any empirical backing.” Yerima criticized the forum’s spokesperson, Dominic Alancha, and described the group as “faceless,” arguing, “The issue of the Islamisation agenda has been disputed by the Tinubu presidency through its dynamic and policy of inclusion.”
Yerima emphasized that Tinubu’s administration has demonstrated impartiality over the past two years, stating, “All doubting Thomases that the APC administration is not tilted to any religious group” have been proven wrong.
He called the group’s attempt to revive the Islamisation narrative “appalling” and dismissed their claim that the opposition could unseat Tinubu in 2027 as “another fallacy that is without any shred of truth or evidence.”
Highlighting Shettima’s competence, Yerima noted, “Sen. Shettima has been diligently fulfilling the roles assigned to him by his principal with all diligence, competence, and dedication.”
He argued that Tinubu selected Shettima after careful consideration and would reject any attempt to impose a different running mate, stating, “President Tinubu is not a political neophyte that some dubious politicians would hide under a mushroom ethnic group to push for an unsaleable agenda.”
Yerima also cautioned against injecting religion into politics, saying, “It is puzzling that some people are driving faith-based sentiments on issues that are strictly loyalty and competence-based.” He urged focus on governance and competence over divisive narratives, reinforcing his belief in the Tinubu-Shettima ticket’s strength for 2027. (NAN)
