Vice President Kashim Shettima has said he fears divisions within the All Progressives Congress, APC, more than the opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Shettima spoke on Saturday in Abuja while unveiling the campaign headquarters of Arewa for Asiwaju, A4A, a northern coalition backing the Tinubu/Shettima ticket, and inaugurating its campaign structure.
“Honestly, I am not afraid of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. I am not afraid of a diminished Peter Obi. But I am more afraid of internal contradictions within our household. If we unite as a people, as a family, we will conquer,” he said.
The Vice President warned party leaders in the North against working for the presidential ticket while undermining governorship candidates.
“There is no point in championing the cause of the presidential election and then undermining the governor in the gubernatorial election. Honestly, it will not go down well with the system,” he said.
He urged members to rally round governors, National Assembly members and President Bola Tinubu to ensure victory.
“The North has spoken. We have spoken with a resounding voice and unmistakable conviction. From Adamawa to Zamfara, from Borno to Niger, we have spoken,” he said.
Shettima said with less than 100 days to the polls, the party must approach the electorate with humility, noting that democracy requires seeking the confidence of Nigerians again.
On former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he charged supporters to defeat him respectfully at the polls.
He said the APC has the structure to cover all 176,845 polling units nationwide, with 361,045 officials from ward to local government levels.
“Politics is still local,” Shettima said, adding that he has asked the Borno State governor to compile a list of all political appointees to account for their performance at polling unit, ward and local government levels.
He said the APC controls 18 of the 19 northern states and claimed that 15 of the 18 NNPP House of Representatives members from Kano have crossed to the APC.
Acknowledging economic hardship, the Vice President said, “Every household struggling to make ends meet reminds us how much remains to be done. We lose our hearing when applause becomes our only source of information.”
Defending the administration’s economic record, Shettima said President Tinubu inherited only $3.9 billion in foreign reserves and over N27 trillion in Ways and Means expenditure, saying the economy was teetering on the brink of collapse.
“For the first time in nearly 18 years, our foreign reserves are in the neighbourhood of $58.9 billion,” he said, assuring that the North has nothing to fear in a second term for Tinubu.
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