Vice President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, on Thursday, narrated how former president Goodluck Jonathan was stopped from removing him from office as a governor through a state of emergency.
Shettima said both the House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, were bold enough to tell Jonathan that he had no constitutional right to remove even an elected councillor. This is coming amid the alleged strained relationship between Shettima and his principal.
His speech today at an event in Abuja has been interpreted to mean a condemnation of the state of emergency imposed on Rivers State by the current President.
Shettima spoke at the public presentation of Adoke’s memoir. The book has its title as ‘OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigerian oil block’.
The vice president said he was marked enemy number one by the Jonathan administration and that he (Jonathan) was ready to remove him. He said that during Jonathan’s government, certain decisions were taken in a circle involving the President, the Vice President, the Senate President, and the Speaker of, House of Representatives.
He said in one of such meetings, Jonathan muted the idea of removing him, the Borno governor. “But Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, had the courage to tell the President that, Your Excellency, you don’t have the power to remove an elected councillor.
“The President was still not convinced. He muted the idea at the Federal Executive Council,” Shettima said, adding that the then AGF “told the President that, Mr President, you do not have the power to remove a sitting governor, not even a councillor.”
He said Jonathan sought the opinion of another FEC member, who said, “I’m concurring with the opinion of my senior colleague.’
“That was how the matter was led to rest. But that was how my relationship with Mr Bello Adoke and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal became eternally sealed,” the vice president further stated. In a clear irony, Shettima’s principal, President Bola Tinubu, declared a state of emergency in Rivers State on March 18, 2025.
He suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, as well as all the members of the House of Assembly for six months. Tinubu immediately appointed ex-naval chief, Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas as administrator to take charge of the affairs of the oil-rich Niger Delta state, a decision that has been heavily criticised.
The current AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, unlike Adoke, backed the suspension of Fubara, his deputy, and members of the state’s legislature.
