By Charles Pemu 
President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has clarified that the president will select his 2027 running mate only after the All Progressives Congress (APC) holds its next convention.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, Onanuga dismissed speculation that Vice President Kashim Shettima might be dropped in 2027, calling the claims “beer parlour gossip.”
“At this stage, it’s a non-issue,” he said. “In a presidential system, the candidate is nominated first; the running mate comes after, as was the case with Buhari.”
The speculation gained traction after Shettima’s name was omitted during a recent APC stakeholders’ endorsement of Tinubu for a second term in Gombe, prompting an uproar among delegates.
Onanuga insisted that Tinubu and Shettima enjoy a strong working relationship and that rumours of discord are unfounded. He also rejected suggestions that Tinubu’s past fallouts with deputies during his Lagos governorship were indicators of future conflict.
“Each case then had specific political contexts. It’s wrong to say Tinubu has a pattern of discarding deputies,” Onanuga said.