Vice President Kashim Shettima has stated that he will retire Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to his village and buy livestock for him to grow.
Shettima stated this to reporters shortly after the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal confirmed President Bola Tinubu’s victory at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
After expressing his happiness with the Tribunal’s decision and urging his opponents to work with him, one of the reporters questioned him if he was still planning to retire Atiku – one of his campaign promises.
“We have moved beyond the phase of politics,” Shettima said. We are now in the governance phase. Atiku Abubakar is an elder statesman in whom I have great respect.
“Anybody who knows the socio-cultural interaction between the Fulanis and Kanuris in the north would know that I have the liberty to hurl all insults at him and he’d stoically bear.
“We are not going to retire Atiku to Dubai or Morocco. I’d retire him to Fombina. I’d buy him goats, broilers and layers so that he can spend his days rearing cows and broilers.
“On a more serious note, Atiku is an elder statesman. The nation needs him.
“Experience is not something that you can buy in the market. We’d tap into his wealth of experience and exposure to catapult the nation to a higher pedestal. Politics is over, governance is now important.”
The five-member panel of justices dismissed petitions against Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the 2023 election, in 12-hour long ruling on Wednesday.
The Tribunal dismissed the petitions of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have both disputed the ruling and stated that they will meet with their lawyers to determine their next course of action.
