The African Democratic Congress has expressed strong support for Vice President Kashim Shettima’s recent statement asserting that the President of Nigeria lacks the constitutional authority to remove a sitting governor.
The comment, made during the launch of a book authored by former Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke on Thursday, was based on Shettima’s personal account of an attempt by former President Goodluck Jonathan to remove him as Governor of Borno State.
His statement surfaced in the wake of the controversy surrounding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s alleged suspension of Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara—an action that has stirred debate over executive overreach.
Although the Presidency later issued a clarification, distancing Shettima’s comment from the ongoing political tensions in Rivers State, the ADC dismissed the response as an attempt at “political correctness.”
In a statement signed by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC insisted that Shettima’s remarks were a courageous affirmation of constitutional truth. According to the party, “President Tinubu doesn’t have the constitutional power to remove an elected councilor, not to talk of a sitting governor.”
The statement continued, “For avoidance of doubts, the breakdown of law and order that the presidency has deployed as pretext to overthrow democratic order in Rivers State is nothing compared with the rampaging scourge of Boko Haram that abducted more than 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno state, slaughtered school boys in Buni Yadi, Yobe State and challenged the very sovereignty of Nigeria. Yet, in declaring a state of emergency in the affected states under these dire circumstances, President Jonathan recognized the limits of his constitutional powers and he respected it.”
Describing Shettima’s remarks as historically accurate, the ADC said, “This was the truth that the Vice President reminded us of at the Book Launch of former Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke on Thursday. It was not faux pas, it was not Freudian slip, it was the truth anchored on the facts of history.”
The party went on to demand immediate corrective action from the Presidency: “In this regard, the ADC therefore calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately restore democratic governance in Rivers State, cease all illegal interference in the affairs of the state, and halt the unconstitutional actions that have upended democratic rule in that state.”
Concluding the statement, the party added, “We further demand that the President tenders an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people for this abuse of power and the blatant disregard for constitutional order that has played out under his watch.”
