There was outrage in Maiduguri on Monday after the All Progressives Congress (APC) excluded the photograph of Vice-President Kashim Shettima from a banner displayed at the North-East Zonal Public Hearing on the amendment of the party’s constitution.
The omission drew angry reactions from party stakeholders and delegates, prompting the Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, to openly protest what he described as a disrespectful slight against the Vice-President.
The banner, produced for the event, featured photographs of President Bola Tinubu, the five APC governors from the North-East zone and the party’s National Legal Adviser, but conspicuously omitted Shettima’s image, despite his status as the number two citizen of the country and a prominent APC leader from the region.
Observers noted that the development was not an isolated incident, recalling a similar exclusion of the Vice-President’s picture at an APC event in Gombe State last year, which reportedly triggered a fracas and forced the meeting to end abruptly.
Addressing the gathering, Lawan, the longest-serving Speaker in Nigeria’s history, expressed shock over the omission, warning that such actions could fuel unnecessary tension within the party.“Why would the Vice-President’s picture not be included in the banner? This was what created the fracas in Gombe, and it is repeating itself here in Borno. I do not know the motive of the organisers, but it is not right,” he said.
He added, “How can the organisers exclude the picture of a sitting Vice-President, who is from Borno and the North-East zone?”
Lawan’s remarks were met with thunderous applause from the audience, reflecting widespread disapproval of the omission among party members present at the event.
