There is a growing discontent between the camps of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that of his running mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima over the latter’s inability to effectively reign-in on influential northern leaders for the Tinubu election bid.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that the Tinubu camp believed that by now, Sen. Kashim Shettima would have exerted more influence on leaders in the northern region to effectively back and champion the Asiwaju elections drive.
A source within the Asiwaju camp revealed that it was expected that by now, the former Borno state governor would have deployed his influence and there would be massive acceptability for the APC Presidential candidate but that has not been realized thus far.
A member of the APC Presidential Campaign Committee told Pointblanknews.Com that Shettima is seen by many as too ambitious, and condescending to leaders of the party.
“He is not helping matters at all. He is too ambition, perhaps showing that feeling that Asiwaju may not be too strong enough to discharge his duties, giving him more opportunities to reign. He is not reaching down to the grassroots and getting the needed support. And that is the condescending part of him. It is not working for us at all,” the APC PCC member told Pointblanknews.com.
According to him, “a lot of our leaders in the North West don’t trust him. Our Hausa/Fulani people don’t trust him. Not just because he is Kanuri who believe so much in what they call “Yasin,” a kind of Quranic prayers, but because our leaders feel he is someone who would want to take over Asiwaju if he wins the Presidency.”
On the flip side, the Sen. Shettima group is feeling increasingly threatened over the visibility and the growing influence of the Kaduna State governor, Nasir Elrufai in the Tinubu campaign trail.
The group feels that the continuous visibility of Elrufai will be detrimental to the influence of the vice presidential candidate and considerably weaken his influence in the scheme of things.
“There’s been growing discontent in both groups lately. And each group seems to be tensed about the others activity ” a source revealed.