During a book presentation in Abuja on Thursday, Vice President Kashim Shettima disclosed that former President Goodluck Jonathan attempted to remove him from his position as Borno State governor in the final years of his administration.
Shettima made this revelation at the launch of ‘OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block’, a memoir by former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke.
Shettima, who served as Borno governor from 2011 to 2019, claimed he was the “most demonised” public official during Jonathan’s tenure, stating, “In the last four years of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, I was the most demonised person; I was the public enemy number one.”
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He recounted a secret high-level plan to oust him from office amidst the severe insecurity and Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
“There are two gentlemen seated here,” he said, referring to Adoke and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal. “Certain decisions are taken in a very rare peace circle – the President, the Vice President, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“In one of such conclaves, former President Goodluck Jonathan, with whom we have now sheathed the sword and recalibrated our relationship, was muting the idea of removing this Borno governor.”
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According to Shettima, the plan was halted by the intervention of Tambuwal and Adoke. He noted that Speaker Tambuwal “boldly confronted the President with the constitutional limitations of his office” at that time.
“Aminu Tambuwal had the courage to tell the President: ‘Your Excellency, you don’t have the powers to remove an elected councillor,’” Shettima recalled.
Still unsatisfied, Jonathan reportedly escalated the matter to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). It was there that Adoke firmly stood his ground on the constitutionality of the issue.
“He (Adoke) told the then President, ‘Mr. President, you do not have the powers to remove a sitting governor, not even a councillor.’ They sought the opinion of another SAN in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who concurred with Adoke. That was how the matter was laid to rest,” Vice President Shettima explained.
Shettima further stated that this event solidified a “lifelong bond” among himself, Adoke, and Tambuwal, whom he lauded for their “courage and fidelity to democratic principles.”
He also commended Adoke for his resilience in writing the memoir and for forgiving his persecutors from both during and after his time in public office.
“I am proud to be here to honour Adoke – a man of courage, conviction, and capacity,” he said. “He stood for what was right, even when it was politically inconvenient.”
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