By Chesa Chesa
Vice-President Kashim Shettima has declared that President Bola Tinubu has nothing to fear from the opposition in Northern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections, urging members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to resolve internal disagreements and unite behind the president’s re-election bid.
Shettima said the North had demonstrated its confidence in Tinubu’s leadership, expressing optimism that the region would give the president more votes in 2027 than it did in the 2023 presidential election.
The vice-president spoke at the commissioning of the Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A) National Secretariat, where he called on APC leaders, political appointees and supporters to consolidate their structures from polling-unit to national levels ahead of the next general elections.
According to him, the party’s greatest challenge in the North was not the opposition but internal divisions among its members.
“Honestly, I am not afraid of the PDP. I am not afraid of a diminished Peter Obi. But I am more afraid of internal contradictions within our household,” he said.
Shettima urged party members to close ranks, support APC governors and National Assembly members, and work collectively to secure victories for the party’s candidates at all levels.
He cited developments in several Northern states as evidence of the APC’s growing political strength even as he noted that the APC secured 60.2 per cent of Tinubu’s votes in the North during the 2023 presidential election and expressed confidence that the party would improve on that performance in 2027.
Shettima highlighted Benue State, where he said the APC won by 310,460 votes, and referred to the party’s performance in Katsina, Kaduna, Kano and other states.
In Kaduna, he said, the APC had gained the support of political figures and lawmakers who previously belonged to other parties, particularly in the state’s southern senatorial district.
He also pointed to defections from the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to the APC in Kano, claiming that 15 of the party’s 18 members in the House of Representatives had crossed over.
Shettima described Kano as a major centre of Nigerian politics and said the APC’s challenge was to translate its political alliances and party structures into electoral support.
He, however, maintained that political calculations and public claims about party strength would not be sufficient without grassroots mobilisation.
