By Nasir Kura
Kashim Shettima was born on September 2, 1966 in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State. After his secondary education at Government Science Secondary School, Potiskum in Yobe state from 1980 to 1983, he proceeded to the University of Maiduguri where he studied Agricultural Economics, graduating in 1989.
After completing his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative Bank in Calabar, Shettima had opportunities to settle down for a working career, but he demurred. Instead, he went for a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics.
Between 1991 and 1993, Shettima worked as a lecturer in Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Maiduguri. He then moved to the Commercial Bank of Africa where he worked as an agricultural economist from 1993 to 1997.
His next port of call was the African International Bank Limited, Kaduna. Joining the lender as Deputy Manager in 1997, he was promoted to the position of Manager. A similar scenario repeated itself at Zenith Bank which he joined in 2001 as Deputy Manager cum Branch Head (Maiduguri office).
Barely five years later, he was promoted to the rank of General Manager. Thereafter, the political arena beckoned with Shettima appointed as Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development in 2007. As a living testament to the adage that reward for more work, he was retained as commissioner (though in different ministries) by successive administrations for the next couple of years.
The highest point of his adventure in partisan politics came in February 2011 when he emerged winner of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) primary poll. He went on to win the April 2011 governorship election in the state, a feat he repeated in 2015, and the rest, as they say, is now history.
