The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has formally announced former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima as his running mate.
Tinubu disclosed this personally in Daura, Katsina State yesterday, after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The APC candidate had gone to Daura, where the president is observing his Sallah break, to unveil his running mate to the President.
Before his announcement, Tinubus placeholder running mate, Ibrahim Masari, had announced his resignation. In an issued press statement he issued yesterday in Abuja, Masari said his decision will enable Asiwaju to have more latitude to give more accommodation and inclusion that will position APC to win the coming elections.
Shettima, the representative of Borno-Central senatorial district, was a former two-term Governor of Borno State. His choice of running mate has been a topic of discussion in Nigerias political space ever since his emergence as the APC presidential candidate.
Recall that Shettima played a lead role in the pre-presidential primaries campaign of Tinubu. He has been a vocal ally of the Asiwaju. In January, Shettima had asked President Muhammadu Buhari and APC to see Tinubus presidential ambition as payback time for what he did for the party to come to power in 2015, saying it was the Asiwaju that ensured the emergence of Buhari as APC Presidential candidate.
He has 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 according to him, more than any other person, he had sacrificed more for the APC.
Sen. Shettima was born in Maiduguri, Borno State, to the family of Sir Kashim Ibrahim, on 2 September, 1966. He is currently a Senator and former governor of Borno State. He won re-election in 2015 under the APC and was unambiguously chosen as Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, an umbrella body of Governors in the 19 States.
He is married to Nana Shettima, and they have three children: two females and a male.
