APC vice presidential candidate Kashim Shettima has downplayed the chances of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, at the upcoming presidential election. 

Mr Shettima said Mr Obi is too politically inconsequential to be Nigeria’s president, but the Labour politician can be elected president of his Igbo ethnic stock.

 “Nigeria is too big for him to handle,” Mr Shettima said in a Channels TV interview. “As far as I am concerned, he’s politically structureless with little or no experience to lead this country.”

“Nigeria requires a technocrat and a sound administrator who will continue from where President Muhammadu Buhari stopped, not someone who will come to take us back to the era of PDP. Nigerians don’t want that,” Mr Shettima said.

“Presidential position is not for the unprepared neither is it an all-comers’ affair. Peter Obi can only become a President in Igboland but definitely not in Nigeria. Nigeria is too big for him to handle. He has no leadership ideology nor experiences like President Muhammadu and our incoming President in the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.” Shettima added.

Mr Shettima was announced as the running mate of Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week Sunday, in a Muslim-Muslim ticket that promptly fueled concerns about sectarian strife in the country.

Mr Shettima’s comments came days after Mr Obi dismissed insinuations that his apparent lack of deep political structure could make him less competitive at the presidential polls. 

Instead, Mr Obi expressed his confidence in the ability of everyday Nigerians to support him.

“The elderly, our mothers, fathers, and the old ones dying or being owed gratuity/pension will be the structure. ASUU; the lecturers that are being owed, and the students who are not in school will be the structure,” Mr Obi said. “We’ll create the structure, and they’ll see what the structure is all about. The structure is about human beings.”

On Friday, Peoples Gazette reported a memo in which the State State Security Service informed Mr Buhari of a possible outbreak of sectarian clashes should Mr Tinubu proceed with his intention to nominate a fellow Muslim as vice-presidential candidate.