By Miftaudeen Raji 

The Director-General, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Kashim Shettima has apologized to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan over his recent comment on the duo last Thursday.

The Borno lawmaker, who made the apology via his Twitter handle, Sunday, said, “I hereby tender my unreserved apologies to the Vice President and the President of the Senate for the unintended pains my jibes might have caused them and their families and supporters.”

Shettima, while speaking on Politics Today Channels TV, had taken a swipe at the duo as unfit to lead Nigeria, describing Osinbajo as a nice man, he opined that nice people ought to be selling ice cream and popcorn.

He also said Lawan doesn’t have the brand name that would sell in the Eastern region of the country, saying when one mentions Lawan in Ohafia, they will think he’s a tomato dealer.

Shettima explained that the aforesaid comments were taken out of context.

He said, “When I appeared on Channels TV last Thursday amidst the tension rippling through our political arena, it was to underline the promise @officialABAT’s presidential bid held for those yet to establish the certainty of the hurdle…

“I never set out to denigrate the personality of any aspirant, and definitely not that of my dear friends and allies. None of them is an opponent, so their aspiration isn’t a threat to us,” he said.

He added, “They appear so in the sprint to become the party’s presidential flag-bearer in the 2023 elections, but they are our allies in the marathon.”

Shettima noted that his assessments of the Vice President and the Senate President Lawan were well-intentioned.

He said, “I never set out to subject them to ridicule but, rather, to stir up interest in the contrasting virtues of the cast of aspirants putting up a fight against my preferred aspirant, one most favoured and advantaged to guarantee APC’s victory in the forthcoming presidential election.”

The former Governor of Borno said the interpretations of his remarks on Osinbajo and Lawan were being done literally and overblown.

He said, “My words weren’t woven to portray them as unworthy aspirants, but merely to qualify them as non-threatening contenders.

“I, however, take full responsibility for my utterances and wish to appeal to our teeming supporters to neither take my words out of their metaphoric contexts..”

Shettima has however, appealed to the public and his supporters not to interpret his remarks as a measure and declaration of hostility towards Osinbajo and Lawan, whom he described as his dear friends and allies.

He said, “I want this to be taken as an appeal to our supporters across all political camps to build bridges and mend fences as the actual journey is just about to begin. Victory, for the discerning, has always been the first lap of the race. 

“As we approach the finishing line of this tense political race, I’m not unaware of who the actual opponents are.

“A divided house, even if in the assumptions and imaginations of supporters with a distant grasp of our relationships with other aspirants, is the last impression we wish to create among Nigerians,” he added.