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The All Progressives Congress (APC) Vice Presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, has said his comparison of his principal, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and former Nigerian Head of State, Sani Abacha, has been quoted out of context.
Wha happened: Shettima had come under fire on social media after he was reported to have said that the APC Presidential candidate will give Nigerians 'friendly' leadership like the late Military dictator.
While presenting a lecture at the Yoruba Tennis Club 96th Anniversary Celebration in Lagos on Thursday, September 15, 2022, Shettima highlighted the qualities Nigerians must look out for in their next president and asserted that Tinubu embodies certain attributes of previous leaders.
“We need a leader with a vision and sense of responsibility and commitment, and somebody who understands the national title of the nation of an Abdulsalami Abubakar, and in our systemic circumstances, we need a leader with a dose of the hospitality of a Sani Abacha,” the former Borno State Governor was quoted to have said.
Shettima clears the air: Reacting to the development, Shettima argued that his speech was misrepresented by the media.
In a series of post on his Twitter page on Friday, September 16, 2022, the APC Vice Presidential candidate condemned the obsession with distorting his views to settle partisan scores.
He denied ever attributing hospitality to Abacha in the said speech.
Shettima's word: "The obsession with distorting one’s views to settle partisan scores brings to mind a certain WBC Commentary. “The trouble with deliberate bias,” it says, “is that it cannot be erased by sound education”. The video of my speech in Lagos is out there for those sincerely curious.
"I never attributed hospitality to Abacha in my speech. I did a rundown of our past Presidents and played up 'the taciturnity and a dose of ruthlessness of a Sani Abacha' to show we need strongmen to deal with the non-state actors who’ve turned Nigeria into a vast killing-field.
"I was quick to tease the audience, appreciating the humour hovering around the hall, with the familiar jibe that nice men don’t make good leaders. By nice men I meant those who get easily manipulated and pressured to divert state resources to appeal to private expectations."