Senator Kashim Shettima
By Yakubu Ahmed-BK
It’s unheard of, for a Nigerian politician to have combined the two extreme and very rare qualities of being an excellent king himself and an excellent kingmaker.
The refrain has always been that you are either a good king yourself or a very good hunter of good kings. The two hardly meet, at least in the Nigerian political terrain.
We have seen instances where Governors who anointed their deputy governors and literally railroaded them into office but the project ended up bursting before their very eyes. In Kano and Zamfara, war raged. In states where outgoing governors forced their ways to anoint sidekicks, war is still raging. At the federal level, Obasanjo single-handedly forced Jonathan unto the nation and today, they are anything but bedfellows.
Enter Kashim Shettima, the high flying and record breaking immediate past governor of Borno state. He spent eight solid years fighting insurgency and building infrastructure. By the time he left office in May 2019, he was adjudged as one of the best governors of all times in Nigeria.
Months into the life of the new government he worked hard to bequeath, Kashim Shettima has proved to be a hugely successful Kingmaker. The government he left behind has not only become Nigeria’s most talked about today on account of Professor Umara Babagana Zulum’s successes, but has shown that a record breaking King, in the Nigerian context, can still rule well and still bequeath an equally excellent successor.
To cap it all, both Kashim Shettima and Professor Babagana Zulum have remained as bonded as when the two worked together as Governor and Commissioner respectively under one government. While Senator Kashim sees himself as a respected former governor deferring to his new boss, the Professor leaves no one in any doubt about his high level of admiration, consideration and regard for his former boss.
This state of affairs between the two has become a pointer that a predecessor and a successor can live in peace and work together towards the common good of their state and their people. Its strange and rare in Nigeria but this two respected leaders of Borno have just demonstrated that possibility.
As I have always written previously, when you pick a pen to shower encomiums on the deserving Professor for all the good work he has been doing, spare a sentence to acknowledge the selflessness of a predecessor who headhunted for the best and insisted, at the risk of losing out on old friendships and loyalty, on the workaholic Professor, as it were, to succeed him.
Lesson here for those who may wish to anoint a successor is to abide by the “Kashim Shettima rule of succession.” Never do it on the impulse to preserve a kingdom, but to preserve the state.
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