Meet Kashim Shettima, Tinubu’s running mate for 2023

Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has unveiled Kashim Shettima, a former governor of Borno State as his running mate for the 2023 general election.

Tinubu made the announcement on Sunday in Daura, the hometown of president Muhammadu Buhari after holding one hour closed door meeting with the president at his residence.

With this deveIopment, Ibrahim Masari, the placeholder running mate of the APC presidential candidate has resigned his hitherto position.

The man Shettima

Kashim was born on September 2, 1966 into the legendary family of Shettima Mustafa Kuttayibe of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital

Education

He attended the Lamisula Primary School in Maiduguri from 1972 to 1978; Government Community Secondary School, Biu in southern part of Borno State from 1978 to 1980; transferred to Government Science Secondary School, Potiskum (now in neighbouring Yobe State) where he completed his secondary education in 1983.

Shetima studied at the University of Maiduguri and earned a Degree (BSc) in Agricultural Economics in 1989. He had his one-year compulsory membership of the National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, at the defunct Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative Bank, Calabar, capital of Cross River State in South-South, Nigeria, from 1989 to 1990. He later obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Agricultural Economics in 1991 at the University of Ibadan in Southwest, Nigeria.

Career

Shettima had after his academic attainments, joined the University of Maiduguri as a lecturer with the Department of Agricultural Economics and was in the academia from 1991 to 1993.

In 1993, he moved into the banking sector and was employed by (now defunct) Commercial Bank of Africa Limited as head of accounts unit at the bank’s office in Ikeja, Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria. Shettima was there from 1993 to 1997. In the same year, Shettima crossed over to the African International Bank Limited as a Deputy Manager and rose to become a Manager in 2001.

In 2001, he moved to the Zenith Bank as head of its main branch in Maiduguri. At the Zenith Bank he rose to Senior Manager/Branch Head; Assistant General Manager (AGM)/Zonal Head (North-East), Deputy General Manager/Zonal Head (North-East) before he stepped out of the Zenith Bank as a General Manager in 2007 following his appointment as Commissioner for Finance in Borno State.

Political Career

The Borno State-born agricultural economist first made his foray into politics when he was appointed as the state’s Commissioner for Finance in 2007. From that year to 2011, he served as Commissioner in five Ministries.

He had served as Commissioner of Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs (2008), Education (2009), Agriculture and Natural Resources and finally in the Ministry of Health from where he contested the Governorship in 2011.

In January 2011, Shettima was elected as governorship candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and in April 2011 general election, he won with 531,147 votes against the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Muhammed Goni who scored 450,140 votes.

Shettima was re-elected as governor of Borno State in 2015 under the newly formed (APC) and was chosen as Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, an umbrella body of Governors in the 19 States located in northern Nigeria.

At the expiration of his second tenure as governor, Shetima was elected as the Senator representing Borno central senatorial District election, a position he holds until his nomination as APC vice presidential candidate.

Shettima had been the leading voice of support to the emergence of Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate from the north despite some permutations about retention of power in the region.

Read also: Who is Yusuf Baba Ahmed, Peter Obi’s running mate

He was the first to have counseled APC leaders and members to see the presidential ambition of former Lagos State Governor as pay back time for what he did for the party to come power in 2015.

Shettima had at a conference organised by the Support Groups Management Council (SGMC) for Tinubu in Abuja, January this year, said it was the Asiwaju of Lagos that ensured the emergence of Buhari as APC Presidential candidate in 2023.

He said: “In 2015, some aspirants with very huge war chest were itching to clinch the ticket of the APC, like the rock of gibraltar, Asiwaju and his progressive team stood solidly behind the candidature of Presidency Muhammadu Buhari.”

The senator representing Borno Central in the Senate questioned where the new members of what he called: “The Buhari’s Church of Later Days Saints” were in 2015, saying their political loyalty did not lay with the President in that particular convention.

He said power should shift to the South in 2023 for equity, justice as well as fairness and Tinubu should be given the choice of first refusal as more than any other person, he had sacrificed more for for the APC.

Shettima had also dismissed what he described as mischievous fixation on Tinubu’s age and the wild conclusions that he is physically unsuitable for the Office of the President as according to him; “we are not here to prepare for the Olympics, but an institution that relies on the superiority of ideas to thrive.”

His strong affection for Tinubu and his leadership acumen was also expressed in the build up to the APC presidential primary election when he appeared on Channels Television to take a swipe on some contenders as not having the brand name as his principal.

Shettima, who later apologised profusely, had described Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as a nice man, but that nice people ought to be “selling ice cream and popcorn.”

He also said Lawan doesn’t have the brand name that would sell in the eastern region of the country for instance as he said: “when one mentions Lawan in Ohafia, they will think he’s a tomato dealer.”

The Borno lawmaker, however, apologised via his Twitter handle, when he said: “I hereby tender my unreserved apologies to the Vice President and the President of the Senate for the unintended pains my jibes might have caused them and their families and supporters.”