Former Borno state governor Kashim Shettima has described senate president and 2023 presidential aspirant of the All Progressive Congress, Ahmad Lawan, as inconsequential, and a nobody with no recognisable household name across the country.

He said the name Ahmad Lawan, when brought up in a conversation, “would sound like a name of a tomato dealer who is bringing tomatoes from Maiduguri.”

Mr Shettima, in an interview on channels television on Friday, said the presidential aspirant of the APC is not a recognisable brand name in the nation when it comes to politics.

Also, he said that Mr Lawan wasn’t qualified to match up with the likes of Atiku Abubakar, the elected presidential aspirant of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, and that his name was an unsellable brand name in order areas of Southern Nigeria.

In the interview, Mr Shettima who is a political footsoldier of Bola Tinubu, leading APC presidential aspirant, took the opportunity to endorse Mr Tinubu as the only presidential aspirant in the ruling party that has a sellable name in the nation.

“Tinubu is the best option for us, we don’t have any choice,” Mr Shettima said, and went further to play down the presidential aspiration of vice president Yemi Osinbajo, stating that Mr Buhari’s deputy was unfit to be the flag bearer of the APC.

The interview comes days after President Buhari in a meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, stated that he would prefer to pick a successor by himself, and urged governors on the APC platform to accord him their maximum support in doing so.