The National Vice Chairman (North East) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mustapha Salihu, has said that only President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can decide Vice president Kashim Shettima’s fate ahead of 2027.

Salihu stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Monday.

There was outrage on Sunday as the APC North-East stakeholders during a meeting in Gombe, Gombe State, endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for re-election in 2027 without mentioning Shettima.

But during the interview, Salihu said that the North East APC stakeholders endorsed Tinubu without condition.

He said, “We cannot as North East APC stakeholders, because our son is the vice president, endorse Asiwaju with condition. We cannot do that. We are endorsing Asiwaju unconditionally. And given the fact that constitutionally it is only one ticket we have, we don’t have the vice president ticket. If we put the words in Asiwaju’s mouth and we now say we have endorsed Kashim Shettima, we are putting the cart before the horse.

“This is not unconnected with the fact that some people are still practising the politics of 1979. Politics has moved from barbarism and decadence without passing that kind of civilization. How can you think that by bringing such thugs into the summit to be threatening people will now show your popularity in the zone?

We are endorsing Asiwaju unconditionally. We are proud that Kashim is our son, we respect him and we stand by him. But it is the prerogative of Asiwaju to determine whether Shittima is going to be his running mate or not. But we are not endorsing Asiwaju without conditions.”