Shettima’s Comment on Blocked Impeachment Sparks Fresh Debate on Fubara’s Suspension

Vice President Kashim Shettima’s revelation that former President Goodluck Jonathan was dissuaded from removing him as Borno governor has sparked fresh debate over President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.

Speaking at the public presentation of a memoir by former Attorney-General Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), Shettima praised the intervention of former Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and then cabinet members Adoke and Kabiru Turaki, who reportedly stopped Jonathan from executing a removal plot.

“Tambuwal had the courage to tell the president, ‘Your Excellency, you don’t have the power to remove an elected councillor’,” Shettima recalled. “Adoke… told the president… you do not have the power to remove a governor, not even a councillor.”

The vice president’s account has drawn immediate comparison to President Tinubu’s action in Rivers, where Governor Fubara was suspended from office amid a political face-off with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike. The move included a declaration of emergency, which is yet to be lifted, although that Fubara and Wike have agreed to set aside their political dispute and work together after a late-night meeting with Tinubu in June.

Critics are now asking why the restraint shown under Jonathan’s presidency appears absent in Tinubu’s handling of internal party conflicts.

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Shettima, while emphasising the importance of preserving public memory, also noted, “The conscience of a nation never adjourns… we are all on trial — not only for what we did, but for what we dared to reveal.”

The memoir, OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block, centres on the controversial oil deal and Adoke’s account of legal and political battles that followed.