Shettima paid tribute to Tinubu, describing him as the unsung hero of Nigeria’s democratic journey.
He praised Tinubu’s commitment to democracy, his sacrifices during the military era, and his role in providing a political alternative to the ruling party.
The Vice President highlighted Tinubu’s support for opposition candidates, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and his role in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer in 2015.
Shettima described Tinubu as a unifying leader who has demonstrated a penchant for sacrificing his comfort and wellbeing for the enthronement of democracy.
He said posterity will be kind to the President.
Shettima said: “I crave your indulgence to pay tribute to one unsung hero of this democratic journey. Nigerians suffer from memory amnesia, but it’s pertinent to remind us that some three years ago, there was a clamour, robustly funded for a northerner to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It came with a crescendo, again robustly funded and supported. In those days, a tendency emerged within the ruling party, some of the dramatis personae are alive today, one of them is Right Honourable Aminu Bello Masari.
“As a group we were driven by a forest of ideas, but what separated and defined us from other political groupings at that epoch was our realisation that what this country needs is a unifying leader, who ponders neither ethnic nor religious agenda, who’s not bound by any toxic regional solidarity and yet known for outstanding leadership.
“We searched the political horizon and on our search, only one person, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The road, the path that led us to Bola Tinubu did not happen by chance, this is a man who has shown ferocious penchant, who has shown a commitment to sacrificing his comfort, a propensity for sacrificing his own wellbeing for the enthroment of democracy. “During the darkest hour of military dictatorship, when the nation was enveloped in darkness, when there were hues and cries of marginalisation and even impending breakup of the nation, Tinubu sacrificed his life, his time and resources for the enthronement of democracy in this country.
“This political enigma had been caricatured, but our younger compatriots must be in the know of Tinubu’s memories from two decades past, when he was the fulcrum of opposition to the enthronement of one party dictatorship in this country.
“When his contemporaries were trading their principles for a place on the dinner table in Abuja and in the process throwing their allies under the bus, he provided courageously a political alternative to the ruling party.
“He was fiercely ostracised, politically ostracised and antagonised by the ruling PDP. By virtue of his commitment, his zeal and his resources and his belief in the rule of law, one by one, he retrieved the stolen mandates of Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo, Rauf Aregbesola in Osun, Adams Oshiomhole in Edo and he has remained a veritable sanctuary for the victims of political witch hunt over the years.
“When former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was harrased, intimidated, dehumanised and chased out of the PDP, it was to Bourdillion that he ran to and it was the Lion of Bourdillion that gave him the political structure to contest for the Presidency on the platform of the Action Congress. His choices of Northerners to fly the flag of his party underlined his pan-Nigerian credentials.
“Four years later, the same Bola Ahmed Tinubu provided the same political structure for for another Northerner, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to contest for the Presidency of this country.
“The likes of Baba Akande are still alive to tell the story of the emergence of former President Muhammadu Buhari as flag bearer of the APC and his subsequent success at the 2015 polls. He was one of the most demonized politicians in Nigerian history, he was caricatured, but the Bola Tinubu political machine took charge.
“They even change the frame of the President’s glasses, they demonized him by getting him to dance in Ibadan, they made him to wear a suit and made him to go to church and without the political support of the Southwest, the story could have been different.
“This is the unsung hero of the Nigerian democratic journey and in the fullness of time, I believe that posterity will be kind to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
