Vice President Kashim Shettima has alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan once plotted to remove him from office during his tenure as Governor of Borno State.
Shettima, who governed Borno from 2011 to 2019, made the revelation on Thursday in Abuja during the public presentation of OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3bn Nigeria Oil Block, a book authored by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN).
Recalling what he described as a period of intense political hostility, the Vice President said: “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.”
He disclosed that Jonathan once raised the idea of removing him as governor during a federal executive meeting.
“There are two gentlemen seated here. 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 sheathed the sword and have now recalibrated our relationship, was muting the idea of removing this Borno governor.”
According to Shettima, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, immediately challenged the suggestion, reminding the President that such action would be unconstitutional.
“Aminu Tambuwal had the courage to tell the President, ‘Your Excellency, you don’t have the powers to remove an elected councillor.’”
Undeterred, Jonathan reportedly brought up the idea again at a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. Shettima revealed that it was at that point that the then Attorney General, Adoke, firmly opposed the move.
“He told the then President, ‘Mr President, you do not have the powers to remove a sitting governor, not even a councillor.’”
Shettima added that another legal voice in the cabinet, senior advocate Kabiru Turaki, backed Adoke’s position, effectively ending the matter.
“They sought the opinion of another SAN in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who said, ‘I’m concurring with the opinion of my senior colleague.’ That was how the matter was laid to rest,” he stated.
The Vice President credited that moment as the beginning of a lasting bond with both Adoke and Tambuwal, praising them for their courage and principled stand.
He also commended Adoke for his ability to forgive those who had wronged him during his time in public service.
The 26-chapter book being presented, OPL 245, explores the controversial $1.3 billion Malabu oil deal of 2011, in which Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni acquired Nigeria’s lucrative deep-water oil block, believed to hold an estimated nine billion barrels of crude.
