ABUJA – Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, launched a sharp attack on two of President Bola Tinubu’s main challengers on Wednesday, questioning the economic credentials of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State governor Peter Obi as the ruling party opened its re-election campaign.
Shettima spoke at the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on October 14, 2026. The event came about three months before general elections scheduled for January 16, 2027.
Remarks on Atiku and Tinubu’s Record
Shettima said he had reminded the country in 2022 that Atiku‘s 2007 presidential bid had found refuge in the political house of Tinubu, calling that generosity part of Nigeria’s political history.
He also suggested that Tinubu’s decisions had spared the country a worse fate. “Had President Tinubu surrendered to expediency, some of today’s critics might have been writing epistles on a collapsed economy from the comfort of London, Dubai, Morocco or New York,” he said.
Shettima said he would continue to address Atiku by his former office and would not join others in using a nickname for him. But he said Atiku, who he noted is contesting for the eighth time, “is no Abraham Lincoln.”
Criticism of Obi’s Economic Proposals
Turning to Obi, Shettima described him as “the master of bogus statistics and incoherent economic prescriptions.”
“He seems to believe a size 36 shirt tailored for Bangladesh will somehow fit a Nigeria size 52,” the vice president said, in a remark aimed at the idea of applying foreign economic models to Nigeria.
Shettima also stressed respect for the presidency, saying that whatever nickname critics prefer, Tinubu is the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Tinubu Faces Two Main Challengers
Tinubu’s strongest opponents in the race are Atiku, the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Obi, the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). Atiku is from Adamawa State in the North-East, while Obi is from the South-East.
The NDC has recently been in a dispute with the electoral commission over the publication of candidates. The party gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) a 72-hour deadline to publish five governorship candidates it said were left out, Daily Talk reported.
Economy at the Centre of the Campaign
The economy is expected to feature heavily in the campaign. Tinubu’s government has said its reforms are working, and the president has welcomed a World Bank report as further evidence of that, reaffirming a commitment to better living conditions for Nigerians.
Economic questions are also being raised at state level, where politicians are debating taxation, security and trade. In a recent interview, former Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa set out a plan to revive Benue’s economy by linking revenue growth to security and simpler taxes.
