By Lanre Oloyede
Chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Jackson Lekan-Ojo, has commended the exemplary personality and loyalty of Vice President Kashim Shetima to his boss, President Bola Tinubu, describing it as necessary ingredient for political stability in the country.
The APC chieftain, who expressed confidence in the capacity and integrity of VP Shettima, said the current government cannot fail with a personality like him around the president.
Chief Lekan-Ojo praised the courage and dexterity of Shettima in confronting the insecurity occasioned by the Boko Haram terrorists during his tenure as governor of Borno State.
The party stalwart in an exclusive interview with Nigerian Pilot celebrated the smooth and cordial working relationship between president Tinubu and vice president Shettima, saying there will be no loopholes as the vice excellently covers up for the president anytime he is outside the country.
Chief Lekan-Ojo maintained that Nigeria is blessed to have the personality of the former Borno State governor as her vice president.
“With the personality of Vice president, Alhaji Kashim Shetima, this government cannot fail because he is a good pair.
“Kashim Shetima was a former lecturer, and as a banker, he rose to the position of the top echelon before he joined politics.
“As he joined politics, he did very well at a time some other would have run out of Borno, but Kashim Shetima choosed to remain and face the brunt of the Boko Haram and was never overwhelmed.
“He’s a man that will not run from challenges. When challenges come, Kashim Shetima will be willing to face the challenge until he surmount it. Whereas some of the leaders we have today, immediately they see challenges they run away.
“I respect his brilliance, intelligence, and bravery. This is a man that is ready to quote figures, dates, time, minisutes hours of events that have happened 30 years ago. He never made mistakes, I’ve monitored him. He is very very accurate in terms of figures, a very super excellent when you talk of intelligence and intellectual prowess, Business prowess, he proved his worth and people respect him for that. He’s a very bold and brave character.
“There was a time they interviewed him and he was referring to the present governor of Borno State as my leader. And I was like this man was an ordinary commissioner under him. When asked why he was calling the governor his leader, he said when he was the governor, he was the political leader in the State, and now that Zulum is the governor, he is the political leader in the State. This is something that is very very difficult for other former governors to do. That is why he doesn’t have any problem with Babagana Zulum.
“Then people were talking about Muslim-Muslim ticket, but now they are calming down, they now see that that doesn’t matter. People don’t know what Tinubu saw that time, he saw that Kashim was the best associate and partner he could use that time, that was why they won.
“Putting him as vice president, he is going to take president Bola Tinubu as a boss and he is going to work with him. He’s not the kind of vice president that will be nursing the ambition of impeaching his president. This man is a loyal person.”
“As time goes, Nigerians will know the value of the person we have today as the vice president of Nigeria. Look at the way they are running the system. Anytime Tinubu travels, Tinubu doesn’t rule from wherever he goes, Shettima is in charge because he trusted him and he has not betrayed that trust.
“I think we should be grateful that God has given us that kind of vice president and I think with time, the economy of this country will bounce back to life. Because he has faced the heat of terrorism and he never ran away or overwhelmed. With him, a lot of things are going to go well in this country,” Chief Lekan-Ojo maintained.
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