By Peter Omopo
Abuja, July 10, 2025 — Vice President Kashim Shettima has revealed that he was the “most demonised” public official during the final years of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, citing efforts allegedly made at the time to remove him as Governor of Borno State.
Shettima made the disclosure on Thursday in Abuja during the public presentation of a new book by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, titled OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3bn Nigeria Oil Block.
Reflecting on the turbulent political climate of the time, Shettima recounted how former President Jonathan allegedly considered removing him from office but was advised against it on constitutional grounds.
“In the last four years of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, I was the most demonised person; I was public enemy number one,” Shettima said.
He detailed how a high-level political meeting involving the then-President, Vice President, Senate President, and Speaker of the House of Representatives discussed the idea of removing him from office.
“In one of such conclaves, Jonathan—whom I now have a reconciled relationship with—mooted the idea of removing me as governor of Borno State,” Shettima said.
According to him, then Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, intervened, telling the President: “You do not have the constitutional powers to remove an elected councillor, let alone a governor.”
The matter reportedly reached the Federal Executive Council (FEC), where Adoke again advised the President against pursuing the move, declaring it unconstitutional. Shettima praised Adoke for his principled stand and recalled that another senior lawyer and then-Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Turaki, also concurred with Adoke’s position.
“That was how the matter was laid to rest,” Shettima said, adding that the incident forged a lasting bond between him, Adoke, and Tambuwal.
He also commended Adoke for the courage to forgive those who wronged him during his public service and described him as a man of conviction and integrity.
The event marked the official unveiling of Adoke’s 26-chapter book, which provides an insider account of the controversial OPL 245 deal — commonly referred to as the Malabu oil scandal. The $1.3 billion transaction, completed in 2011, involved oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Eni acquiring one of Nigeria’s most lucrative deep-water oil blocks, believed to contain nine billion barrels of crude.
