Senator Kashim Shettima, a former Borno state governor, has been announced as the running mate of All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the 2023 election.
According to Within Nigeria, the announcement was made by Bola Tinubu on Sunday while addressing journalists after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina state.
Shettima is an incumbent senator and former two-year governor of the state of Borno.
Here are 12 key things you probably don’t know about Tinubu’s collaborator Kashim Shettima;
1. Senator Kashim Shettima was born in Maiduguri, Borno State, to the family of Sir Kashim Ibrahim.
2. He is married to Nana Shettima and they have three children: two women and one man.
3. He graduated from Maiduguri University in Borno State and graduated with a BSc in Agricultural Economics in 1989.
4. Shettima obtained a Master’s degree (MSc) in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ibadan in 1991.
5. He joined the University of Maiduguri as a Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics and worked in research from 1991 to 1993.
6. He also worked in the banking sector (from 1997 to 2007) before venturing into politics.
7. In 2007, Shettima was appointed Commissioner of Finance in Borno and Governor of Borno State for two terms (2011-2019).
8. In February 2019, he became the winner of the Borno Central Senatorial District election.
9. He has served as Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftainship Affairs (2008), Education (2009), Agriculture and Natural Resources and finally for the Ministry of Health from where he contested the governorship in 2011, which he won under the platform of the now defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and was inaugurated on May 29, 2011.
10. He won re-election under the APC in 2015 and was elected Chair of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, an umbrella organization of governors from 19 states in northern Nigeria.
11. Shettima’s criminal record has received positive recognition both inside and outside Nigeria. Governor Shettima was named 2014 Governor of the Year (Leadership Newspapers), Governor of the Year 2015 (Nigeria Union of Journalists, national body).
12. Other awards include: Governor of the Year 2015 (News Watch Times Newspapers); Governor of the Year, 2015 (Vanguard Newspapers); Governor of the Year 2016 (Tell Magazine); 2017 ZIK Prize for Leadership; Kaduna NUJ Award for Courage and Exceptional Leadership (2017), FCT NUJ Merit Award for Exceptional Leadership, 2017.
