Kashim Shettima, Nigeria’s Vice President, was born 58 years ago, on September 2nd, 1966. And what a year to be born! It was indeed one of the most defining years in Nigerian history. 1966 was the year of the first coup, which ended the post-colonial administration that had seen Nigeria into independence, six years earlier, in 1960. By July 1966, there was the counter-coup and a spiraling of events that led Nigeria into a Civil War, which was estimated to have led to the death of two million Nigerians on both sides of the divide.
Thankfully, the war ended in 1970, and in one of the most magnanimous platforms of post-war reconciliation ever seen in recent history, Nigerians on both sides of the divide re-embraced themselves and began the processes of national development. Warts and all, the immediate post-war years saw a rapid development in Nigeria which opened up vistas of national and personal advancement, that we can only look back on, in nostalgia, against the backdrop of the challenges that we face today.
Kashim Shettima came into consciousness in a very hopeful period in Nigeria’s evolution, and the hallmark of that stage was the relatively good educational system within which he studied and graduated. He studied agricultural economics at the University of Maiduguri, a second generation institution, and would do his national service in Calabar, Cross River State. Those were the years when national service was still national and a service.
This background is important to understand the evolution of Shettima’s persona and the manner that has informed his politics, and choices he made in the period since he was appointed into the cabinet of Borno State, as Commissioner for Finance and EconomicDevelopment, by Governor Ali Modu Sheriff in 2007.
Between 2007 and 2011, he would serve as Commissioner in five ministries: Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs, Education, Agriculture, and Health. These are the landmark ministries in any cabinet. It might not have been willed, but it was obvious that Kashim was getting a rounded and holistic understanding of the governance process in Borno, an understanding that fate would then prepare as a platform of ascendancy to the highest office of Governor of Borno, following the tragic killing of Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio in January, 2011. Kashim Shettima became the go-to candidate in February 2011. He would win the April 2011 gubernatorial election as the candidate of the ANPP. He then earned even more votes four years later, as he stormed to a second term as Borno State Governor in 2015!
Kashim Shettima’s tenure in Borno State coincided with what was one of the most tragic phases in the long history of Borno, dating back to the Kanem-Borno tradition. The Boko Haram insurgency dealt huge blows and shook the society to its roots. Kashim occupied the unenviable position of leadership, which demanded the most courageous personal choices to ensure that the state didn’t completely dissemble.
Kashim Shettima took the decision to provide leadership from the front. There was the need to continue to give hope through a well thought out development agenda in education, agriculture, health care, infrastructural development, attempting to provide solutions for problems of everyday life, and keeping people’s hope alive, and letting them to be constantly aware that the insurgency would not be allowed to determine the present and future of the state, as well as that of our country.
I was privileged to earn a ringside seat, in a manner of speaking, so I saw at very close quarters the herculean efforts that Kashim Shettima and his team put into keeping their state going, and planting those truly remarkable seeds that began to germinate and deepening hope for the vast majority of the people of Borno.
It was, therefore, heartwarming to see new schools, the types of which weren’t available in other parts of the country. That was a direct challenge to the insurgency that targeted schools and killed teachers as well as abducted children. Borno began to invest massively in the most modern agricultural equipment, to redefine agriculture, even when the insurgency delighted in slaughtering farmers. Borno was indeed determined to regain its agriculture. The same went for health care facilities as well as massive human capital development investments. It was within that sensibility that he created the Borno State University, that is deepening its place today as a major institution of learning in Nigeria.
Young ladies were sent out of Nigeria to study medicine so as to return home eventually, to begin to give back to their society. And many years later, a picture emerged online, as some of those young ladies visited Vice President Kashim Shettima, to thank him for their education and to also assure him that they were keeping faith with Borno, by returning to serve in the health care system of the state. Kashim even went as far as Vietnam, in the company of this reporter, to explore the possibilities of sending out young people from Borno to study modern approaches to fisheries. Borno, afterall, had always been one of the biggest producers of fish, in Nigeria!
Nigerians took note of Kashim’s efforts to develop his state in those crowded eight years in power, despite the ravages of Boko Haram. His counterparts in the Northern States voted him as Chairman of the Northern Governors’ and he began to show remarkable troubleshooting skills, within the region, while also reaching out to people all over the country. The Nigetian press delighted in the developments taking place under Kashim Shettima in Borno State and they festooned him with accolades. Over several years, many Nigerian newspapers recognised his strides and they gave him numerous awards. And by the time that his tenure was coming to an end in 2019, he did the most remarkable thing; one that would ensure that he genuinely secured a legacy that couldn’t be erased. Kashim Shettima selected a successor in Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, an outstanding scholar and public servant who not only continued his legacy but has taken the development agenda to an even higher level. Between the two of them, a Nigerian success story of how to transition from one leader to another has been admirably told to a nationwide applause!
Kashim Shettima left his position as Borno State Govenor, with his head held high as he transitioned into the Nigerian Senate. He began to operate at a different level within the Nigerian public space and he took to the new environment like duckling to water, become a compelling member of the upper chamber of the Nigerian legislature. He began to build bridges amongst the senators, just as his interventions on issues were done with remarkable fortrightness and competence. Shettima quickly became one of the most influential members of the Nigerian Senate between 2019 and 2023.
It became obvious that there was much more to expect from Shettima. He had become a very visible politician and one who had a solid home base, and an expanding level of nationwide visibility, which was anchored on a genuine intellectual resource base, that he was never shy to deploy either to protect his own turf or to give short shrift to those on the other side of the political divide. This shouldn’t surprise. The cut and thrust of the cloak-and-dagger world of Nigerian politics is never for the faint-hearted. Kashim Shettima understood that early enough and he seemed prepared to take politics head-on, and it seemed to have worked for him so far.
It probably didn’t come as a surprise for the most discerning observers of the Nigerian political space, that Kashim Shettima was going places. And when he was named as running mate by President Bola Tinubu, it was a culmination of the political build-up which started all those years ago in Borno State, when he was first invited into the Borno State Executive Council, by Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. That opportunity is one that Shettima consistently remembers as the point of embarkation that was generously offered by Sheriff, who he continuously refers to as his leader and mentor.
Today, as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima has a different level of responsibility in our society. He is expected to be the closest adviser of the president and a man who is expected to be the voice and face of the number one citizen. He is visible but must not block the views of the president. He is to talk, explain, analyze, and interject, within parameters that give the plaudits to the president. That’s in the nature, content, and context of the presidential system of government.
Shettima seems a good student of this political system and is at peace with the roles outlined for the number two citizen. That is why he plays the role of the ultimate PR impressario of the administration in a tireless fashion. Sometimes, it can be a very thankless position to occupy because in times of acute crisis, when the administration faces the opprobrium of the people, the PR impressario receives a lot of flak from the people. Presidential environmental politics can often be too liberally a space of treachery and the floors have so many visible and hidden political banana peels!
There is also a second but related worry in the position of the Vice President. He is seen as a representative of a broad constituency. In this case, Kashim Shettima is the leading representative of Northern Nigeria within the Tinubu administration. The expectations that accompany such a position are enormous. And at this point in time, people in the North are quite restive about how much they’re getting from the administration. So, Kashim Shettima has his work cut out for him. He would have to show remarkable political dexterity, balancing his position as the PR impressario of the Tinubu administration with opening and securing accesses for the people of Northern Nigeria in the “Emilokan/Awalokan” firmament that envelopes our country today. How well he does that balancing, will determine his own political legacy in the long run.
At 58, Kashim Shettima has a very bright political future ahead of him. And there’s no gainsaying the fact that he is building that future now with the choices that he is making on a daily, and on an incremental, basis. He has been lucky to have had solid experience of what politics can offer, either as Easton’s “authoritative allocation of values”, or the Hobbesian jungle, where life is “nasty, brutish, and short”. I believe that he would lean on the good fortune that’s followed him so far, along with his deep intellect, and a maturing political experience to continue to make the most noteworthy choices, that would resonate with the very best interests of the Nigerian people. That’s because it’s such choices that can guarantee political survival, in the long run.
Finally, and on a jocular note, as I told the Vice President a few days ago, he would need a choreographer, to work on his dance steps! It’s important that he should learn to dance with dexterity to the remarkable sound of modern Nigerian music, that’s already conquered the world of the 21st Century. It’s the same level of dexterity in the arena of politics that aids and ensures political survival.
Happy 58th Birthday, my dear brother and friend, Vice President Kashim Shettima!!!
Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, PhD., FNGE, is a Broadcaster, Journalist, and a Political Scientist. [email protected]
Abuja, Sunday, 1st September, 2024.
