Vice President Kashim Shettima has said he was the “most demonised” person under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said the then president mooted the idea of removing him as Borno State governor but the then Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, stopped the idea.

Shettima spoke on Thursday in Abuja at the public presentation of Adoke’s memoir. The book has its title as ‘OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigerian oil block’.

The former Borno governor said Adoke was brave enough to tell Jonathan that he had no constitutional power to remove even an elected councillor let alone an elected governor.

Shettima was governor of the insurgent-ridden northeast state from May 2011 to May 2019.

At the peak of the insurgency, on December 31, 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency in some local governments in Borno and Plateau states.

Some 18 months later, on May 14, 2013, Jonathan declared a state of emergency for the entire terrorist-plagued states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa but he did not suspend any of the governors.

Ironically, on March 18, 2025, Shettima’s principal, President Bola Tinubu, declared a state of emergency in Rivers State amid a protracted political crisis in the state, and suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara; his deputy, Ngozi Odu; as well as all the members of the State’s House of Assembly for six months.

Tinubu immediately appointed ex-naval chief Vice Admiral Ibok Ette Ibas as administrator to take charge of the affairs of the oil-rich Niger Delta state, a decision that has been flayed by many leaders of thought.

Conversely, the current AGF Lateef Fagbemi, unlike Adoke, justified the suspension of Fubara, his deputy and members of the state’s legislature. (Channels TV)