The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, on Sunday, announced a former governor of Borno State, Kashim Ibrahim Shettima, as his running mate for the 2023 general election.
Tinubu made this known while speaking to newsmen shortly after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at his private residence in Daura, Katsina State.
The APC National Leader said he picked Shettima as the party’s vice-presidential candidate because of the former Borno State governor’s competency, capability, and reliability.
Below are a few things to know about the APC’s vice-presidential candidate:
Shettima was born in Maiduguri, Borno State, on September 2, 1966.
He attended Lamisula Primary School in Maiduguri from 1972 to 1978.
He proceed to Government Community Secondary School, Biu in the 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.
He studied at the University of Maiduguri and earned a Degree (BSc) in Agricultural Economics in 1989.
Shettima had his one-year compulsory membership of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) at the defunct Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative Bank, Calabar, the Cross River State capital, from 1989 to 1990.
He obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Agricultural Economics in 1991 at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State.
He joined the University of Maiduguri as a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics and was in 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.
Shettima worked at the bank from 1993 to 1997. In 1997 he 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 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.
In mid-2007, Shettima was appointed as the Commissioner of the Borno State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
Kashim Shettima is my running mate ― Tinubu
He later became Commissioner in the Ministries of Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Education, Agriculture and later Health under his predecessor as Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.
He was elected as Borno State Governor in 2011 on the platform of the now-defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Shettima was re-elected in 2015 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He was later chosen as Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, an umbrella body of governors in the 19 states in the North.
As Borno State Governor, he managed challenges arising from the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
With the approval of the National Security Adviser and the Nigerian Army in 2013, his government formalised establishment of youth volunteers called the Civilian Joint Task Force.
In February 2019, Shettima emerged as the winner of the Borno Central Senatorial District election, replacing Senator Babakaka Bashir.
He was announced as the APC’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general election by the party’s presidential standard-bearer, Bola Tinubu, on Sunday, July 10, 2022.
Shettima is married to Nana with whom he shared three children: two females and a male.
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