{"id":82031,"date":"2026-01-22T13:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=82031"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:11:28","slug":"north-central-apc-forum-opposes-move-to-drop-shettima-ahead-of-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/22\/north-central-apc-forum-opposes-move-to-drop-shettima-ahead-of-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"North-Central APC Forum Opposes Move to Drop Shettima Ahead of 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The North-Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has rejected calls to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Bola Tinubu\u2019s running mate ahead of the 2027 general election, warning that such a move could hurt the President\u2019s re-election prospects.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja, the forum\u2019s Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, cautioned party leaders against altering the current ticket, describing it as a winning formula that should not be tampered with.<\/p>\n<p>The statement follows speculation about Shettima\u2019s political future after his photograph was omitted from a banner displayed at the APC North-East zonal public hearing on the amendment of the party\u2019s constitution in Maiduguri.<\/p>\n<p>The development has revived debate within the party over the retention of the Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2027, with some stakeholders reportedly advocating the choice of a Christian running mate, particularly from the North-Central, to address religious concerns.<\/p>\n<p>However, the forum dismissed such calls, insisting that the North-Central is not seeking the vice-presidential slot and is instead positioning itself for the presidency in 2031.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is serious danger in changing a winning ticket. We totally reject calls to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Tinubu\u2019s running mate in the next election,\u201d the forum said.<\/p>\n<p>It warned that replacing Shettima on religious grounds would weaken the APC and benefit the opposition, adding that the move would not deliver additional votes to the party.<\/p>\n<p>The forum also rejected suggestions of foreign pressure to abandon the Muslim-Muslim ticket, stressing that Nigeria is a sovereign nation and should resist external interference in its electoral choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata The North-Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has rejected calls to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima as President Bola Tinubu\u2019s running mate ahead of the 2027 general election, warning that such a move could hurt the President\u2019s re-election prospects. In a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja, the forum\u2019s Chairman, Alhaji [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":82032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1755,172,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2027-general-elections","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82033,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82031\/revisions\/82033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}