Ice cream, tomato vendor: Shettima apologises to Osinbajo, Lawan

Former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has apologised to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, for throwing jibes at the presidential aspirants.

Shettima said he never set out to subject Osinbajo and Lawan to ridicule.

The former governor, who is an ally of Bola Tinubu, is the incumbent Senator representing Borno Central in the Senate.

Shettima had on Channels TV’s programme, ‘Politics Today’, on Thursday night, reiterated his support for Tinubu, who is vying for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and described the two presidential aspirants, Osinbajo and Lawan, as good men, who should be selling ice cream and trading in tomato.

The senator’s outburst against the two APC presidential aspirants, however, elicited several reactions from Nigerians.

Responding to the backlash that trailed his outburst, Shettima, in a series of tweets on his Twitter handle on Sunday, said his words weren’t woven to portray them as unworthy aspirants, but to qualify them as “non-threatening contenders”.

The former governor stated: “When I appeared on Channels TV last Thursday amidst the tension rippling through our political arena, it was to underline the promise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidential bid held for those yet to establish the certainty of the hurdle ahead of the APC.

“I never set out to denigrate the personality of any aspirant, and definitely not that of my dear friends and allies. None of them is an opponent, so their aspiration isn’t a threat to us. They appear so in the sprint to become the party’s presidential flag-bearer in the 2023 elections, but they are our allies in the marathon.

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“My assessments of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, were well-intentioned. I never set out to subject them to ridicule but, rather, to stir up interest in the contrasting virtues of the cast of aspirants putting up a fight against my preferred aspirant, one most favoured and advantaged to guarantee APC’s victory in the forthcoming presidential election.

“The interpretations of my remarks on Professor Osinbajo and Senator Lawan are, thus, being done literally and overblown. My words weren’t woven to portray them as unworthy aspirants, but merely to qualify them as non-threatening contenders.

“I, however, take full responsibility for my utterances and wish to appeal to our teeming supporters to neither take my words out of their metaphoric contexts nor interpret them as a measure and declaration of hostility towards my dear friends and allies.

“I hereby tender my unreserved apologies to the Vice President and the President of the Senate for the unintended pains my jibes might have caused them and their families and supporters.

“As we approach the finishing line of this tense political race, I’m not unaware of who the actual opponents are. A divided house, even if in the assumptions and imaginations of supporters with a distant grasp of our relationships with other aspirants, is the last impression we wish to create among Nigerians.

“I want this to be taken as an appeal to our supporters across all political camps to build bridges and mend fences as the actual journey is just about to begin. Victory, for the discerning, has always been the first lap of the race. Thank you for your understanding,” Shettima wrote.

The Star