Kashim Shettima, vice-presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), says he was misquoted on a recent comment he made
which cited a reference to the late Sani Abacha.
Speaking on Thursday at the 96th anniversary celebration of
the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos state, NAN had quoted him as saying
Nigeria needs the “hospitality” of Abacha, former military ruler.
However, Shettima had said the country needs a president
with “a dose of ruthlessness and taciturnity” of Abacha.
The APC vice-presidential candidate had also listed some
qualities of leaders such as Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdusalami Abubakar, Ibrahim
Babangida, and President Muhammadu Buhari, and said Bola Tinubu, APC
presidential candidate, has such qualities.
“We need a leader
with the patience and sense of responsibility and commitment, and somebody who
understands the national psyche and mood of the nation of an Abdulsalami
Abubakar, and in applicable circumstance, we need a leader with a dose of
ruthlessness and taciturnity of general Sani Abacha,” he had said.
“Nice men do not make leaders. We need a leader with
intellectual acumen, with the passion to catapult this nation to a higher
pedestal. We need a leader who is not bound by regional or religious sentiment.
“We need a leader that has established such records of
excellence and commitment to good governance. There is no one, with all due
respect, that fits this better than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Clarifying the comparison of Abacha to Tinubu in a series of
tweets on Friday, the former governor of Borno said he did not attribute
hospitality to Abacha, adding that he meant Nigeria needs a president who is
ruthless like the late military ruler, to address insecurity.
“The obsession with distorting one’s views to settle
partisan scores brings to mind a certain WBC Commentary. ‘The trouble with
deliberate bias,’ it says, ‘is that it cannot be erased by sound education’.
The video of my speech in Lagos is out there for those sincerely curious,” he
tweeted.
“I never attributed hospitality to Abacha in my speech. I
did a rundown of our past Presidents and played up ‘the taciturnity and a dose
of ruthlessness of a Sani Abacha’ to show we need strongmen to deal with the
non state actors who’ve turned Nigeria into a vast killing-field.
“I was quick to tease the audience, appreciating the humour
hovering around the hall, with the familiar jibe that nice men don’t make good
leaders.
“By nice men I meant
those who get easily manipulated and pressured to divert state resources to
appeal to private expectations.”
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At least listen to yourself first before altering words. The first time your dress was debated, now your words...
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