By Gidado Ibrahim
A former United States vice president, Charles Dawes, had joked about the futility of the office and how his job was to look at the newspapers each morning to check on the health of the president, Calvin Coolidge.
However, in recent years in Nigeria, vice presidents have played an increasingly important role in government. They have served as confidants, envoys, top advisers and taken on a broad range of vital responsibilities. A good example was demonstrated by the unruffled working relationship between immediate past vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and President Muhammadu Buhari. Because the president trusted his vice, Osinbajo was visible throughout their eight years in office.
In leadership, governance or politics, trust is the coin of the realm. If everything else is lost, as long as trust is intact, nothing is lost yet because with trust, every lost can be regained. The foregoing aptly captures working relationship between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. When Tinubu as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the February 25 presidential election chose Senator Shettima, not too many Nigerians gave the team any hope of a seamless working relationship. In fact, some chronic pessimists formed dangerous theories around the choice of Shettima. However, two months into the “Renewed Hope” government, time, it is said, is a vindicator.
Needless to emphasise that some of us who had indepth understanding of Asiwaju’s political matrix needed not to lose sleep. When cynics and merchants of mischief were peddling all manner of falsehoods to de-market Asiwaju, we employed the power of media and other means to disabuse and puncture holes in their lies. Surprisingly, two months into the Tinubu-led government, those who came out full chest to discredit Tinubu/Shettima team are their greatest cheerleaders today.
What happened? Or what has changed? The proof of a pudding is in the eating. In other words, things must be judged by trying them yourself or seeing them in action, rather than on other factors such as hearsay. Now that the train has taken off, the intention is now clear, the direction is unambiguous. The seamless working relationship is now evident.
Let me fresh our memory on the reason Tinubu adduced for the choice of Shettima. At the meeting with the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Tinubu explained: “My choice of Shettima is borne out of the urgent need to address the challenges facing the country and Shettima possesses strong leadership abilities which he exhibited when he was the governor of Borno State. I wanted a progressive government, that was why I selected Shettima. We have urgent challenges that do not depend on religious leanings but on the best of hands that can address it.”
Has Shettima’s strong leadership ability start manifesting or not? Is the unfettered loyalty Tinubu chose Senator Shettima for started manifesting or not? While the president is back home trying frantically to fix things, especially to fine-tune the ministerial list, in order not to run foul of the recently signed Electoral Law, which mandated the president to submit names of ministerial nominees within 60 days, he sent out his trusted, competent and dependable vice to attend strategic summits around the world.
Recall that recently, in one of my articles, I pointed to the fact that the Tinubu-led government will effortlessly launch Nigeria back to global relevance, which began with President Tinubu attending Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. Tinubu also used the trip to attract foreign direct investment to Nigeria. Again, about five weeks after assuming office, the Nigerian leader was unanimously chosen to be new ECOWAS chairman. This is a new era for Nigeria to reassert itself in international politics.
In the same vein, the Vice President Shettima on Sunday departed Abuja to represent President Tinubu at two major international summits in Rome, Italy and St Petersburg, Russia, where he stole the show with a superlative outing. At the Rome event, he joined other global leaders for the first Stocktaking Moment (STM) Summit themed ‘Transforming Food Systems for People, Planet and Prosperity,’ which held from July 24, to Wednesday July 26. During the summit, Shettima chaired a high-level session themed ‘Innovative Financing for Food System Transformation: the Case of Nigeria’.
The side event titled, ‘Scaling up Multi Stakeholders Collaboration and Investment in the Implementation of Food Systems Transformation Pathways in Nigeria.’ The event was organised in collaboration with the Rome-based UN agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP), as well as the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub and wider UN system. The foregoing is the very reason why I am confident to say Nigeria is once again warming its way back to global relevance.
After the Rome Summit, Shettima, again, proceeded to St. Petersburg in Russia to represent the President at the Russia-Africa Summit, which started on Wednesday, July 26 and expected to end today, Saturday, July 29. While in Russia, the Vice President joined other political and business leaders at the 2nd Russia–Africa Summit and Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum focused on strategising to enhance relations between Russia and the African continent, among other benefits. Also, VP Shettima participated in bilateral meetings with representatives of relevant Russian senior government officials and business leaders to discuss relations between Russia and Nigeria.
The Holy Bible asked a question in Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed”? The answer remains NO! Even in a thousand years. For instance, would Tinubu have had the confidence to send Shettima to represent him at two strategic world Summit if he does not trust him?
Historically, there has always been tension between presidents and their vice. There’s a point in the Fourth republic that frosty relationship between the president and his vice nearly grounded the workings of government. This is not limited to Nigeria. In the United States where Nigeria copiously copied its presidential democracy from, there had been issues of president and vice disagreeing. For example, the immediate past US vice president, Mike Pence, had disagreements with President Donald Trump on many issues. Against the backdrop of the foregoing scenerio, it is safe to pick a vice president that’s trustworthy so you don’t work across purpose.
Another example will suffice, Walter F. Mondale, who served as vice president from 1977-1981 transformed his office and paved the way for the powerful vice presidents who followed. Heavily engaged in domestic and foreign policy, Mondale was the first vice president to have an office in the White House and had unprecedented, frequent access to the president. On April 26, at a Wilson Center Director’s Forum, Mondale led a roundtable discussion on the role of the vice president.
Under the Tinubu-led government, Nigeria is beginning to witness another level of healthy working relationship between the president and his vice. It should be sustained so that we can get things done, especially fixing the nation’s economy as demonstrated in their early foreign trips in office.
On a final note, I wish His Excellency, vice President kashim Shettima a successful outing and safe trip back home.
– Ibrahim is director, Communication and Strategic Planning, of the Presidential Support Committee (PSC).