Vice President Kashim Shettima
The National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru, has said that the fate of Vice President Kashim Shettima emerging as President Bola Tinubu’s running mate for the 2027 elections will be decided after the party’s National Convention.
He said though Tinubu enjoys an overwhelming endorsement from party stakeholders to seek re-election in 2027, his running mate issue is not on the table yet.
The former spokesman of the Senate said this on a Channels Television programme: “The Morning Brief,” on Friday.
Bashiru said: “As far as we are concerned, the national summit held in the Presidential Villa has endorsed Mr. President based on his track record and a large spectrum of stakeholders in our party have also overwhelmingly given endorsement to Mr. President.
“The question of running mate is not yet onboard and nobody has come to say that the President has made any adverse decision as regards the present Vice President.”
On the issue of what transpired on June 15, 2025 at a summit of the North East APC Zone, which became rowdy after the Zonal Vice Chairman, Mustapha Salihu, named Tinubu as the party’s sole candidate for re-election without mentioning Shettima, which triggered a protest, Bashiru said: “As far as I am concerned, there was not discussed.
“I was physically present in Gombe State.
“After the summit, we had a reception at the Government House.
“Some people in the North East felt that it suffice to give endorsement to the President and then the President will be in a position to decide who would be his running mate in 2027.
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“Some other people are of the view that it is also important that since the summit is being held in the North East, the Vice President, coming from the North East, should equally have an endorsement.
“What I know is that even at the National Convention, where a candidate for the presidential election will emerge, it is only the presidential candidate that will emerge at the convention.
“The running mate issue will be done after that.
“As far as our party is concerned, we have not made any statement or got ourselves involved in the politics of the North East.”
