Senator Bola Tinubu picks Senator Kashim Shettima as his vice presidential partner. Mr Shettima, who represents Borno Central in the Senate, was the governor of Borno state from 2011 to 2019. Shettima is a very popular politician in the Northeast geopolitical zone and that can pose some challenges to PDP’s Atiku who comes from the same zone.

The political theater is set, pending what Rabiu Kwankwaso does. In this election, the vice presidential ticket will have a marginal impact. Nonetheless, I must acknowledge the uniqueness of APC picking Shettima, who ran Tinubu’s campaign (as Director General), since he a muslim, just as Tinubu. Since the historic Abiola win, the consensus is a joint ticket of the two formal religions in Nigeria.

This Tinubu’s move is bold but also risky. The typical perceived strength in religious diversity, in a national ticket, especially in this age of unprecedented security paralysis in Nigeria, was frozen here.

Atiku goes with Delta State’s Governor Okowa, Obi goes with former Kaduna State senator Baba-Ahmed and Tinubu has Shettima. Across all indicators, this election is everyone’s game depending on what INEC decides to do. In October 2018, I wrote “I expect Buhari to win in 2019” – and he won. In this one, it is very open.

This is the first mobile internet era election and it provides opportunity to all. Unlike in the past where only bundlers passed information to the electorates, technology has made it possible that even rural farmers in Abia, Oyo and Sokoto can get independent data on candidates. If they show independence, the best message will WIN.

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Statement by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidential Flag Bearer of the All Progressives Congress on his Choice of the Vice Presidential Candidate, July 10, 2022.

1. Fellow Nigerians, we enter a moment of renewed hope. We hold the chance to move the nation and our collective cause forward as never before. Let us seize this moment so that history may write kindly of us.

2. It is time to focus with utmost devotion and love of country to do all we can do to advance the ideals of democratic and progressive good governance in the land.

3. We must end poverty and bring greater prosperity and more lasting peace. Let us be wise of thought yet courageous in action, as we embark on a collective enterprise that brings jobs, education, food, medicine, hope and belief in a better life to those who need them.

4. I stand ready to begin this journey with you, hopefully, to lead the nation on this needed path as your next President by the grace of God. I believe this is a pivotal moment at which the dynamics of history and destiny call us forth to reshape our beloved nation. This is our moment.

5. We all must answer the nation’s call. For some, this requires of us that we step forward, assuming new roles and responsibilities. For others, it may mean something else. For all of us, it requires that we dedicate ourselves to the collective national task as never before.

6. To re-envision and reshape the nation, I must compose the best team possible, a team put together with but one overriding purpose: to forever establish just, capable, and compassionate governance for the people of Nigeria without regard to religion, region, or ethnic origin.

7. In the weeks since becoming the presidential candidate and standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I have been touched as Nigerians from all walks of life have demonstrated their faith in my capacity to lead this country. I thank you for the outpourings of support for they reveal to me the hope you hold for this nation’s greatness. As long as we walk together and work together, we shall arrive at our national greatness together. To this glad and great endeavour, I fully devote myself and my future labour.

8. In full compliance with existing law and regulation, I submitted all necessary documents regarding my nomination as the APC presidential candidate to INEC. But, as was expected, the choice of my vice presidential running mate remained an open and burning question.

9. This gave rise to much speculation and debate.

10. Recent events [the voluntary withdrawal of my dear friend and brother Ibrahim Masari] mean that I am called upon, today, to put an end to the speculation.

11. I have never been an indecisive man and have no present intention to become one.

12. What I am, however, is a democrat. And a democrat must listen to, and consult with, the people and his advisors so that he may reform and govern wisely and on their behalf. This I have done. My political career was not built on blind indifference to the views of others. I appreciate the perspectives of leading members of the party, political allies and key national figures who see Nigeria’s future as I do. They gave me their views so that I might add their valuable insights to mine to reach the best decision possible and do so in a manner that strengthens the institutional fabric of our party as well as accelerating the evolution of our political democracy.

13. I am also a founding member of the APC. I hold our party’s core principles close to heart such that I shall do nothing to betray the spirit in which the party was created.

14. Having now listened to the sage, careful advice of a broad section of the party and of the nation, there are a few points I feel I must make about the exceptional and extraordinary person with whom I will share the APC ticket and the principles of open and good governance that informed this choice.

15. A dominant theme of my political history and my personal life is my staunch belief in our diversity. Greatness lies in embracing our diversity and making it work to enhance the dynamism and justice of our political system. My selection of a running mate comports entirely with this longstanding inclination.

16. The concurrence of my party in this matter has been a source of comfort and encouragement. We are truly building a progressive party that not only represents a departure from other political parties but one that truly may well be the best hope for democratic good governance in Nigeria.

17. I realize the momentous times we have entered. I know what lies in the balance. I also know that our political choices and activities send both intended and unintended signals to portions of the Nigerian electorate.

18. All my life, my decisions regarding the team around and supporting me have always been guided by the principles of competence, innovation, compassion, integrity, fairness, and adherence to excellence.

19. When I was Governor of Lagos State, these principles helped me assemble one of the most capable governing cabinets any state or this nation has ever seen. I trust enough in these principles to allow them to, once more, guide me to construct another exemplary team that can do Nigeria proud.

20. Second, this chapter in our country’s history demands a bold yet pragmatic approach, a path already chartered by the progressive ethos of the APC. The foundation for sustainable progress has been laid these past seven years by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. The challenges of today are consequential because the lives and livelihoods of millions of Nigerians lie in the balance. Visionary and creative leadership will take us to our goal.

21. Our focus, therefore, must be on getting the job done; and that means getting the very best and competent people to do it. In this crucial moment, where so much is at stake, we must prioritize leadership, competence, and the ability to work as a team over other considerations.

22. I am mindful of the energetic discourse concerning the possible religion of my running mate. Just and noble people have talked to me about this. Some have counselled that I should select a Christian to please the Christian community. Other have said I should pick a Muslim to appeal to the Muslim community. Clearly, I cannot do both.

23. Both sides of the debate have impressive reason and passionate arguments supporting their position. Both arguments are right in their own way. But neither is right in the way that Nigeria needs at the moment. As president, I hope to govern this nation toward uncommon progress. This will require innovation. It will require steps never before taken. It will also require decisions that are politically difficult and rare.

24. If I am to be that type of President, I must begin by being that type of candidate. Let me make the bold and innovative decision not to win political points but to move the nation and our party’s campaign closer to the greatness that we were meant to achieve.

25. Here is where politics ends, and true leadership must begin.

26. Today, I announce my selection with pride because I have made it not based on religion or to please one community or the other. I made this choice because I believe this is the man who can help me bring the best governance to all Nigerians, period, regardless of their religious affiliation or considerations of ethnicity or region.

27. May I say this to all of you, especially to those who will be disappointed in my selection based on religious considerations. I will not and cannot ignore the religious concerns and ethnic sensitivities of our people. Taking them into due consideration is an important part of good and able governance. But religion, ethnicity and region cannot always and fully determine our path. To forge ahead as a nation toward development and prosperity, we must break free of old binds. We must recalibrate our political calculations to where competence and fairness matter more than reductive demographics.

28. This is why, today, I announce the selection of SENATOR KASHIM SHETTIMA as my partner and running mate in the mission to advance and reclaim the fortunes of this great country and the hopes of its people.

29. Senator Kasim Shettima’s career in politics and beyond shows that he is eminently qualified not only to deliver that all important electoral victory, but, also, step into the shoes of the Vice President. As a man with the talent, maturity, strength of character, and patriotism he has my implicit confidence and faith.

30. I am aware that many will continue focus on a particular detail, the question of his faith.

31. However, if we truly understand the challenges upon us a nation, then we must also see the imperative of placing competence in governance above religious sentiment.

32. In 1993, Nigerians embrace Chief MKO Abiola and a fellow Muslim running mate, Baba Gana Kingibe in one of our fairest elections ever held.

33. The spirit of 1993 is upon us again in 2023.

34. As such, the ticket we present today represents a milestone in our political history. It symbolizes our party’s determination to be a leading light among political parties in Africa.

35. The democratic process and the decorum that characterised our presidential primaries and the selection of our vice presidential candidate exemplifies why we are the party of the people and of the betterment of their future. With this selection the All Progressives Congress surely shall continue to be the party that shows the way and carries this nation towards its best future. I implore you all to join with me on this journey to a brighter future.

Signed
Asiwaju Bola A. Tinubu,
APC Presidential candidate

Feedback from LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: If Tinubu’s platform and apparatus worked in 2019, what has changed?

My Response: Many things indeed. Tinubu strategists are of course smarter than us here. But selling a muslim-muslim ticket under the unprecedented insecurity in Nigeria will require more efforts. Of course, we have to overlook that but I am not sure it is the best move. When Abiola did this and won, it was all about the economy after SAP was destroying Nigerians. But today, we have insecurity besides the economy. This is a new experiment and it looks exciting for our campus political scientists (of course they are on strikes)

Comment 2: I’m beginning to like 2023 already.
With your analysis Prof. We can still see the future from now.
I don’t want to point fingers or blow big grammar to make more sense but all I’ve got to say is. The field is wide open and free for a slide take on the make naija great movement.
We do what? We wait!
Success is where preparation meets opportunity and our acquisition of PVC is our preparation.
God bless you, God bless us all and God bless Nigeria.

Yes indeed, the satellite course is coming on July 16 at 7pm WAT. Joseph U. Ibeh, a satellite analyst with Northern Sky Research USA, and John Enoh, the creator of Beeptool which already has Elon Musk’s Starlink systems in Nigeria, are our faculty. Tekedia Mini-MBA learners: do not miss this course. It promises to be super-amazing with windows of opportunities in the broadband age.

Some weeks ago, Elon Musk and SpaceX announced that Starlink had secured an ISP license, established a local subsidiary in Nigeria and is set to launch its LEO satellite broadband service in the country.

Common questions I have received and seen debated on social media border around the implication of Starlink’s entrance for mainstream telecoms in Nigeria and the opportunities therein. Some opinions have gone viral on Starlink taking MTN, Globacom and other telecoms out of business in Nigeria, and other analyses have sought to answer the critical questions on pricing strategy and mass-market adoption. As part of the Tekedia Institute Mini-MBA session, I will dive deeply into these critical questions, providing clarity on the satellite connectivity market in Nigeria and opportunities with Starlink in the picture.

The session will be on Saturday, 16 July 2022, at 7- 8:30 pm West African Time on Zoom, with hundreds of experienced and emerging business executives in attendance. I will be joining Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and John Enoh during the session. https://lnkd.in/gpDuRByT

• Joseph U. Ibeh

(source: LinkedIn)

“The ant-hills are not built by the elephants but by the collective efforts of the little ants” – if you lived in a typical Igbo community, you might have watched elders make this statement. Most times, they will add: this community can only thrive if everyone can sweep from his compound all the way to the village square. They are simply saying – no matter the size of the iroko tree, it cannot make a forest, because you need many trees to have a forest.

Indeed, sustained greatness has never been achieved because of the bravery of just ONE man or woman. But greatness has always come because a people or a nation has a leader with Believers. When people are united, with a great leader, they can accomplish whatever they plan to accomplish!

In our business, I challenge our founders to communicate with a higher purpose – and elevate the minds of their teams. Why? Those teams are the structures to build any successful business. Every great company has two components: great products and superior operational execution; humans do those executions.

As Nigeria’s 2023 election comes, I challenge young people not to be fixated on the lack or presence of old political structures. Rather, see how you can become the living structure of Nigeria you want. You can be the structure and upon that structure, your leader will rise to give you a better future.

Technology will create disintermediation that old-style political structures may not matter that much since information asymmetry will be reduced as a result of the ubiquitous smartphones and mobile internet connectivity in Nigeria. Nigeria’s electoral market is becoming more perfect with reduction of information asymmetry (everyone gets the same info about candidates and can make decisions unlike in the past when people relied on emirs, obas, obis, village heads, etc to guide them).

As digital systems penetrate, the influence of political brokers, bundlers, etc will fade, since those citizens now have access to the right info about candidates and make decisions.

Yes, you can have party chairmen in all local government areas. But if you do not have the message for the citizens, the chairman  will not stop them from learning about those with the right messages. In the pre-mobile internet age, those chairmen were the pipelines to reach the voters. They used their positions to influence how those voters vote. Not always now.

We are the “ants” that will build Nigeria. And there are many things to learn from the ants. If we “become” like them (ants can teach us many things as I noted in this Harvard Business Review piece – The Leadership Lessons of Ants), out of the global capitals, the world will see a hopeful, prosperous, and honourable nation on the horizon. Like ants, we can build the ant-hills of Nigeria!

I challenge you – Nigerian youth – and I drop these words: Uwa bu ahia [the world is a market],  and I will introduce a new meaning (not literal and axiomatic within ancestral Igbo usage of words) to write that if you win the markets, you will win your world. It is the economy, period! But you have to be the structures as you evaluate these candidates.

More Notes on “Uwa Bu Ahia”

Though I have extrapolated  “Uwa bu Ahia” [the world is a market] in the context that if you win your market, you win your world, the real meaning of that axiom is not related to market or trading. Rather, it is looking at the ephemeral nature of everything in life. Largely, the world is a stage; you come and go which means that nothing is permanent. People go to markets and later go home and the market becomes empty.

Yet, as a good student of Igbo (“A” WAEC student in secondary school), I can deepen that understanding in new ways. Igbo language has been growing right from the 1978 FC Ogbalu led Igbo Convention.

“Uwa bu Ahia” {if you win your market, you win your world} – is my preferred campaign motto for a future governorship election in Abia State (lol). If you win in economy, you win the world.

Uwa bu Ahia – let’s win the world by winning on economy in Nigeria.

As the world watches the paralysis in the failed Sri Lanka, check your personal economy. Ghana is now a big concern. Egypt is there. El Salvador is there. Nigeria is in a gestation period with huge implications ahead of 2023 elections. The hopeful effervescence  of South Africa is challenged by youth unemployment and they are ramping up violence daily (19 died this weekend). From all indicators, I expect massive sovereign defaults and severe deterioration of many currencies. 

The Ghanaian cedi has lost 30.56% against the US dollar in 6months. The drop in the Cedi comes despite Ghana’s central bank’s hawkish stance to stamp out inflation.

As the dollar index (DXY) maintains its bullish momentum, the Cedi seems to be heading in the opposite direction. At the time of writing this article, the USD/GHS up 30.56% (YTD) to trade a 7.89 Cedi.

At a time when Ghana is facing economic disruptions caused by the Russian-Ukraine war, a stronger US dollar supported by hikes in US interest rates would only accelerate  the depreciation.

The biggest news now is that President Biden has to meet a man he initially ignored to speak with on phone. Yes, Saudi Crown Prince. Reading his piece in the Washington Post, you can see that even the United States feels the urgency to strike partnerships to avert a major economic upheaval.

The war in Ukraine has provided a validation that some statistics the world has relied on is faulty. No one would have believed that Russia and Ukraine have these impacts on global food security. But with both cut out due to sanctions and war, the world is now rattled with even the “major” suppliers of food confused.

Nigeria has lost physical security. President Buhari needs to do all to ensure we do not lose Food Security. Where he fails to do that, via all means necessary, it would be devastating.  This becomes necessary as our leaders continue to make statements which make no sense: “The Kuje custodial centre that was attacked by terrorists on Tuesday was Nigeria’s most fortified prison, interior minister Rauf Aregbesola has said. Mr Aregbesola said this in a statement on Friday after visiting the prison.

“Now my position is so clear, I have declared since April 2021 that all our facilities are red zones and that whoever attempts an attack may not live to tell the story. I still maintain this.

“Kuje is the most fortified in the country. It is medium by size but maximum by the security being put there. We have a platoon of security officers deployed here.”

The minister said that although the prison is officially a ‘medium’ security prison, it was the most fortified in the country.” Yes, it is the most fortified, but it was attacked for hours, and no help came even though it is within the nation’s capital! That denial is part of our problems just as we have been talking about crude oil theft with no action.

Mr. Kennedy [Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria/Mid Africa Business Unit, Richard Kennedy] emphasized the need not to confuse the agitations of host communities of oil-producing areas with the spate of crude oil theft being carried out in the area.

“From my experience, the issue with crude oil theft should not be confused with host community issues. It is much much much bigger than that. It is completely different from host community issues. Quite frankly it is organized crime.” 

He also revealed that the level of theft is costing Nigeria millions of dollars daily in lost revenue which could have helped solve our fiscal challenges.

“The volume of crude that is being stolen is well beyond comprehension. You can see some of the figures in the press, maybe it’s about 100,000 barrels per day at $100 per barrel and that’s $10 million per day that is being stolen. And NNPC owns 60% while taxes of 85% are paid so it’s a huge loss for the country.” 

Globally, provided the Western powers continue to focus only on Ukraine, we may see what happened in Sri Lanka take place in other places: ‘Thousands of protesters in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo have taken over the president’s residence, BBC reports. And the president is resigning: “Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has announced he will step down after protesters stormed his official residence and set the prime minister’s house on fire.”’ So, do not count on leaders to lead. You just have to have your plan.