Shettima: Acing The Emotional Intelligence Index

They want him to challenge his boss, contest against him, and get his boss to prostrate before him, and beg him not to run. They want him to enrich all his cronies, privatise all the privatisables at giveaway prices while fleecing the country and making billionaires of a few, with many left in penury and more advanced economic challenges.

They want him to perpetuate the tradition of Abuja politics boys becoming overnight billionaires without breaking a sweat, but just by being loyal to the Vice Presidency. They want him to sell the Nigeria Railway Corporation, the Abuja Light Rail, and the National Stadium. Better still, sell Ajaokuta Steel Plant one more time, and handover Mambilla Hydro Power Plant to a loyalist on a BOT model, jollywell knowing that the loyalists cannot fund even an independent power generation system, strong enough to power an estate of as little as 50 or 100 houses! They want him to sell assets worth billions of dollars to cronies for meagre amounts, say N100 million, dollars, or naira sef!

In another vein, they want him to sack the current IG and the Chief of Staff to Mr. President, just so everyone is reminded that he is number two. They want him to be at war with all of Mr. President’s men, his political allies, his family and long-term friends. They want him to sour his relationships with different power brokers and power groups, so much that when 2031 beckons and he dares to declare his ambition to run for the Presidency to succeed his boss, those toes he has stepped on, will mount a roadblock on his route to the Presidency, when it matters the most.

They want him to brandish his powers and build more enemies, instead of being humble enough to build bridges and partner with the different stakeholders. In Hausa, there’s a proverb that says, “ba a mugun sarki, sai mugun bafaje”. It means the king is usually not vile and cantankerous, but the co-travellers in the corridors of power are! They want Kashim Shettima to be a ruthless and dominant power to the co-travellers, so much that those kingmakers can’t hardly wait to take their pound of flesh when he decides to have a shot at succeeding his boss, come 2031.

Shettima has won elections three times, serving as governor for two terms totalling eight years, then a senator, and eventually a running mate to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This is, of course, after an illustrious banking career full of promise, and as an administrator in Borno State, serving in so many ministries as commissioner, and then clinching a very hard fought race for the governorship ticket in Borno State. This is not mentioning him as a sterling performer when he governed a war-torn zone, courageously launching an aggressive campaign to rebuild Borno from the tatters of war, and the carnage that terrorism had brought upon them. His experience, political dexterity, and administrative excellence cannot be rivalled by most of those that are jostling for the Vice Presidency and spraying stories on newspaper spreads and blogs.

Shettima is obviously a good student of the corridors of power, having been hatched by one himself. His emotional intelligence has been of the highest index, as he has kept a cool head in the midst of all the man-made storm, rocking the clouds and trying to create a purported rift or tension between the Vice President and his boss. This is in sharp contrast to what is actually taking place. As a keen observer of the activities of the Vice President’s office, I see how swamped he is on a daily basis with a hugely tight schedule, and a lot of the time I wonder how it doesn’t sap his energy to Level 0! Obviously he was a workaholic at Borno, and it has trained him well. He was at the World Economic Forum to represent Mr. President, and at UNGA; where he had a very intellectually exhilarating outing. FDI’s have flooded the country from these summits. His office is championing a programme called i-Dice, where $617 million is being utilised to build youth capacity and improve skills, by investing in creative and digital enterprises.

His office launched the Nigeria Youth Academy with the Youth Ministry where youths would have access to millions for entrepreneurship. They have forgotten the Pulaku Initiative meant to quell the farmer/herder crises, with N50 billion earmarked for the pilot scheme in a few select states. The current SAPZ, Special Agro-Processing Zones programme is also anchored from the Vice President’s office. The same programme that generated a lot of misplaced outcry over the exclusion of some states, especially the North Eastern states where the VP hails from, along with the agriculture and food security minister; which inadvertently contributes to the heavily driven narrative that Shettima is a lame-duck – only to discover that the states were all captured in the 2nd phase of the programme, as they were not well-documented for the first phase.

Shettima’s schedule of activities is over the roof if you do observe the activities that take place daily. Those egging him on to be like one or two of his predecessors do not mean well for him. Those jostling for his seat would lose out again, over the same qualities he overshadowed them with previously. They are mounting the pressure, and sponsoring discordant tunes of rifts between him and Mr. President.

They do not realise that in the terrain of political masters and their proteges, loyalists and close allies of yesteryears are always over and above everyone, when the business of power boils down to it; either to pour out its wrath, or to consolidate on its camaraderie. In the light of all the bad light being spread around, Shettima has exuded an impressive emotional intelligence quotient. He is a good student of the power book and plays the power role(s) very well, adapting to whatever or wherever he finds himself.

Maybe some haven’t forgiven him for his stabilising role in the leadership tussle of the Senate, paving the way for a Christian Senate president, or for referring to Osinbajo as an ice-cream man. One thing is sure, Shettima is beyond likening to an ice-cream man, because if you reflect on where he has come from, and x-ray where he is now on the political prism, he is ladders ahead of our former VP.

His emotional intelligence is in top gear to enable him keep his nomination come 2027. Those slugging it out to replace him are eventually going to cancel each other out, just the way Peter Obi, Atiku, and Kwankwaso did in 2023. President Tinubu is most likely going to maintain the ticket if you know Asiwaju, and if you are a good student of politics. Nobody will break down his political structure when he is far ahead of an obviously disoriented and excoriated opposition.