VP’s Camp Mobilises as APC Moves to End 2027 Replacement Rumours

…Party Leaders Warn of Disaster if Shettima is Dropped from Ticket

Vice President Kashim Shettima is fighting for his political survival as rumours of his possible replacement on President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election ticket refuse to die, despite an emphatic denial by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Yesterday, the APC moved to shut down what it described as a “growing media frenzy,” dismissing reports that Shettima could be dropped as Tinubu’s running mate as “purely speculative, untrue and utterly baseless.” In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the party accused unnamed actors of deliberately promoting discord and confusion within the polity.

“Our party states in categorical terms that the stories are purely speculative, untrue, and utterly baseless,” the statement said, warning media organisations against amplifying what it called rumours from “mischievous news sources of questionable provenance.”

The party stressed that political activities remain officially banned under Nigeria’s electoral laws and insisted that its current priority is supporting President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima in delivering the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda. It also urged ministers, senior officials and party leaders to avoid statements or actions capable of fuelling premature succession politics.

Yet, beneath the firm official denial, multiple signals suggest that anxiety within the Shettima camp, and the wider APC, is deepening as 2027 draws closer.

In recent weeks, social media platforms and political circles have been awash with claims that the ruling party is weighing a recalibration of its controversial Muslim–Muslim ticket. Names floated as possible replacements for Shettima include Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto Diocese, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi State, and recently appointed Defence Minister, former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.

The speculation gained further traction after Shettima’s photograph was conspicuously omitted from a banner displaying APC leaders at a North-East governors and stakeholders’ meeting in Maiduguri, Borno State, a development that prompted the Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, to publicly raise the alarm over what he described as the Vice President’s “exclusion” from key party optics.

Although the APC leadership insists nothing is amiss, senior party figures have begun openly warning that dropping Shettima could be politically catastrophic.

The Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, ignited the most forceful defence of the Vice President when she cautioned that altering the current ticket could cost the APC the 2027 election. Speaking on Mic On Show with journalist Seun Okinbaloye, Musawa argued that abandoning a northern Muslim running mate would severely weaken the party in the core North.

“If there is no Hausa, Fulani or Kanuri Muslim on that ticket, it creates a hurdle. That is the reality of the way people think,” she said, listing key northern states — Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara and Sokoto — where voting behaviour, she noted, is deeply shaped by identity and long-established political patterns.

“I think if we toy with changing the construct of what we have now, it is a problem. People who suggest otherwise may not fully understand how politics works in the north,” Musawa warned.

Her intervention was followed by similar cautionary notes from other APC power blocs. The North-Central APC Forum, led by Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, rejected calls to drop Shettima, describing such moves as a “grievous political miscalculation” that would hand the opposition a strategic advantage.

“There is serious danger in changing a winning ticket,” the forum said, arguing that Tinubu would gain no new votes by replacing Shettima but risk losing substantial support among core northern voters. It added that the North-Central was not angling for the vice-presidential slot, but was instead positioning itself for the presidency in 2031.

Adding intellectual firepower to Shettima’s defence, APC chieftain and former lawmaker Prof. Haruna Yerima warned that those pushing for a change were the same elements who opposed the Tinubu–Shettima ticket in 2023.

“Tampering with the Tinubu/Shettima ticket will not augur well for the APC in 2027,” Yerima said. “Shettima has been loyal, competent and effective. Even his detractors cannot deny his intellectual depth and political pedigree.”

Despite the chorus of support, political observers note that Shettima’s situation fits a familiar Nigerian pattern. Apart from former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who returned almost seamlessly with President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, most Nigerian vice presidents — including Namadi Sambo under Goodluck Jonathan — endured bruising internal battles and sustained rumours of replacement ahead of re-election bids.

Sources close to Shettima told KTH Daily that the Vice President is “not perturbed” and has “options.” Still, eyebrows were raised within APC circles after the party’s strongly worded denial coincided with Shettima’s recent visit to a prominent Delta-born political heavyweight known to have played a decisive role in the emergence of Felix Morka as APC spokesperson.

Whether coincidence or calculation, the timing has only reinforced perceptions that Shettima’s political machinery is quietly shoring up alliances as internal pressures mount.

For now, the APC leadership insists the matter is settled. But as 2027 approaches, the intensity of the rumours, the defensive mobilisation by ministers and party blocs, and the unmistakable nervousness within the Vice President’s orbit suggest that Kashim Shettima is not just fighting speculation — he is fighting for his place on a ticket that could decide the future of Nigeria’s ruling party.