Nigeria 2023: Shettima is Tinubu’s ambassador in the north, he will even resurrect Abacha to prove it

Donu Kogbara
By Donu Kogbara

Writer/broadcaster who shuttles between Nigeria and the UK

Posted on Thursday, 20 October 2022 15:17, updated on Wednesday, 23 November 2022 12:24
Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno state, looks on during an interview with Reuters in Maiduguri, Nigeria November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

When Southerner Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), chose Northerner and fellow Muslim Kashim Shettima as his running mate, howls of protest ensued nationwide. 

Nigeria has developed a tradition of balancing presidential tickets religiously as well as regionally, to keep the peace; and Tinubu’s decision to ignore this gentlemen’s agreement has alienated a large chunk of the electorate.

It led some of his Christian party colleagues to resign from the APC in disgust.