By After weeks of speculations and wait, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has finally chosen Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate for the 2023 polls.
Shettima, who currently represents Borno Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, is a former two-term governor of the war-torn state. However, the choice of Shettima, a Northern Muslim will no doubt spark outrage as it means that the APC settled for a Muslim-Muslim ticket against all odds.
Here are ten things you should know about the APC vice-presidential candidate.
1. He was born on September 2, 1966, in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. His father, Sir Ibrahim Kashim was a renowned politician and close associate of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Nigeria.
2. Shettima had his primary education in Maiduguri between 1972 to 1978. He completed his secondary school education at Government Science Secondary School, Potiskum (now in Yobe State) in 1983.
3. In 1989, he bagged his Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Maiduguri. He obtained a master’s degree in the same discipline in 1991 at the University of Ibadan in Oyo State.
4. From 1991 to 1993, Shettima taught at the Department of Agricultural Economics in the the University of Maiduguri.
5. After leaving the academia, he worked in the banking sector where he cut his teeth as a professional banker and rose up through the ranks. He was a General Manager at Zenith Bank before his appointment as Commissioner for Finance in Borno State in 2007.
6. He would go on serve as Commissioner in other five ministries such as Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Education, Agriculture and later Health, between 2007 and 2011.
7. By dent of luck, he became the 2011 governorship candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in Borno after the winner of the first primary, Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio got assassinated. Shettima eventually won the polls and became governor.
8. He was re-elected for a second term in 2015, now under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He also became the Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum.
9. In 2019, he was elected to represent Borno Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
10. Shettima is a strong ally of the APC flagbearer, Tinubu.
