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On Thursday, Vice-President Kashim Shettima seemed to disassociate himself from President Bola Tinubu’s contentious dismissal of an opposition party elected governor.

On March 18, 2025, the president unilaterally dismissed Rivers Governor Simi Fubara from office, as the People’s Gazette originally reported.

Following members’ acceptance of cash bribes from the president’s loyalists, the National Assembly subsequently approved the very contentious decision. Since then, a retired military general has been serving in replacement of Mr. Fubara.

Using his experience as a governor to highlight the dangers of such extra-constitutional actions, Mr. Shettima stated during a book launch in Abuja on Thursday that there was no constitutional basis for a president to remove an elected governor in Nigeria.

“Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was floating the idea of removing this Borno governor (pointing at himself), and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, had the courage to tell the president: You don’t have the power to remove an elected councillor,” Mr Shettima said at the book launch of former attorney-general Bello Adoke.

Additionally, Mr. Shettima commended Mr. Adoke for preventing Mr. Jonathan’s 2013 attempt to remove governors of northeastern states due to insecurity by using his position as attorney general at the time.

“The president was still unconvinced, he mooted the idea at the Federal Executive Council, Mr Mohammed Adoke told the president: You do not have the power to remove a sitting governor,” the vice-president said. “They sought the opinion of another SAN in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who also said: I am of the candid opinion of my senior colleagues. That was how the matter was laid to rest.”

“I want to thank you for the courage to forgive those who have offended you. In the last four years of the Jonathan government, I was the public enemy number one,” he added.

Although Mr. Shettima did not specifically mention Mr. Fubara’s dismissal, the tone of his planned statement made it clear that he was upset about the widespread problem of presidential meddling in domestic matters.

A request for response to Mr. Shettima’s remarks regarding Mr. Tinubu was not immediately answered by a presidential spokesperson.

Since the announcement of Mr. Fubara’s expulsion, Mr. Shettima has mostly refrained from discussing his thoughts on its constitutionality; therefore, his choice to denounce the action in his first public statement may exacerbate the tension between him and the president.

When governing party leaders who support Mr. Tinubu for a second term in 2027 would not instantly embrace Mr. Shettima as his running partner, a meeting at the State House last month ended in pandemonium, according to political analysts.

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