BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Vice President Kashim Shettima says the time has come for northern Nigeria to repay its political debt to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by successfully anchoring his re-election bid in the forthcoming 2027 general elections.
He said Tinubu had consistently supported politicians from the north, including former President Muhammadu Buhari and it was only fair for the region to reciprocate the support by re-electing the President and other candidates contesting different positions under the APC.
Addressing party members and supporters at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign launch in Kaduna on Saturday, the Vice President said: “We have come to ask you to renew a second time for the APC from top to bottom.”
Senator Shettima, who framed the upcoming polls with the proverb, “one good turn deserves another”, reminded the region of Tinubu’s long-standing loyalty to northern leaders, and urged voters to reciprocate the gesture.
He argued that as a test of regional equity and alignment, opposing the president’s second-term ambition would amount to betraying a leader who repeatedly sidelined his own aspirations to lift northern politicians to power.
The Vice President said aside from successfully canvassing support for late President Buhari during his presidential campaigns in 2015 and 2019, Tinubu had at a time supported and provided the platform for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to contest the presidency in 2007 after he exited the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in controversial circumstances.
According to him: “And you can bear witness that in 2015 and 2019, President Tinubu stood solidly behind the late President Muhammadu Buhari, throughout his first and second term victories. This is a mark of honour and our faith in a man of honour”.
Strongly defending the Tinubu-led administration, Senator Shettima stated that it had delivered on its promises across key sectors, saying: “First and foremost, we promised to bring back the glory of Kaduna state as the nation’s centre of learning”.
Shettima cited the establishment of the Federal University of Applied Sciences in Kachia, the transition to the Federal University of Education in Zaria and the establishment of a state vocational institute in Rigachikun as examples of the administration’s achievements in the state.
He said: “This is why we have registered substantial progress on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline the Kano-Maradun railway, the Lagos-Kano rail corridor, and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road.
“We are advancing work on the Sokoto-Badagry highway that will open up a vista of opportunities for agricultural production in this country. And I want us to bear in mind and go down the past. We are also advancing work on the Sokoto-Badagry highway that will open up a vista of opportunities for agricultural production in this country.”
With the ruling party banking on this early campaign push as an aggressive strategy aimed at consolidating power in Nigeria’s most critical voting bloc, the Vice President’s political appeal received strong and robust backing from top government officials, including Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
The Minister stoutly defended the administration’s record, pointing to measurable economic reforms and major infrastructural interventions across the North as proof that the region stands to gain the most from a sustained Tinubu presidency.
