APC Presidential flag-bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has settled for former Borno Governor, Senator Kashim Shettima, a northern Muslim, as his running mate ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Tinubu disclosed this in Katsina, where he’s on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari who is holidaying in his home state for the Sallah celebrations.
55-year-old Shettima was Governor of Northeastern Borno State from 2011 to 2019. He currently represents Borno Central in the Nigerian Senate.
A former banker and agricultural economist, Shettima graduated from the University of Maiduguri and the University of Ibadan.
Tinubu’s choice of running mate has been heavily criticized in some sections; not least in a nation almost evenly split between a predominantly Christian South and a predominantly Muslim North.
Nigeria’s presidential ticket often seeks to strike a religious balance between both dominant religions, to reflect diversity and equal representation.
Tinubu, 70, is a practising Muslim from Nigeria’s south.
A two-term governor of Lagos–Nigeria’s richest and most populous state–Tinubu beat all aspirants to nick the APC Presidential ticket on June 8. He has been accused of buying his way to the ticket.
A clever, cunning politician by most accounts, Tinubu has also been repeatedly accused of corruption in Nigeria’s patronage political system.
His main challengers ahead of the 2023 vote are Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
Obi and Abubakar both settled for Muslim and Christian running mates from the north and south respectively, to reflect Nigeria’s peculiar diversity and religiosity.