Senior Correspondent, ISHAYA IBRAHIM, chronicles the travails of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State in the last three years, concluding that he has been on hot seat since his election in 2011
Governor Kashim Shettima
Kashim Shettima, Borno State governor, began his tour of duty in 2011 amid turbulence, with every passing day now ushering more troubling moments for him, the height of which was the kidnapping of more than 200 girls in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14.
His ordeals seem to have taken roots early enough. Even the circumstance of his emergence as governor was fraught with crises. In the build up to the 2011 election, the original governorship candidate of the then All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Modu Fannami Gubio, a cousin of then Governor Modu Alli-Sheriff, was killed on January 28, 2011, three months to the contest.
Boko Haram, then at its infancy, claimed responsibility for the dastardly act through some leaflets it circulated: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, without any doubt, we the warriors of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, under the leadership of Imam Abu Muhammad Abubakar Bin Muhammad, popularly known as Shekau, hereby declare that we are responsible for the attacks launched in Borno on Friday 23-14-32 (January 28, 2011), which led to the killing of Alhaji Modu Fannami Gubio, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and the brother of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff as well as the security men attached to them.”
Shettima, then Commissioner for Health, was considered the appropriate choice to replace Gubio as the ANPP candidate. He thereafter won the election with 531,147 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Muhammed Goni, came second with 450,140 votes.
That appeared the only moment of joy for Shettima. Since then, the governor has been struggling to remain calm in the face of extreme Boko Haram attacks. He had, in fact, at a time in 2011, escaped bomb attack in Maiduguri. Some days ago, the governor narrowly escaped a mob action in Gomboru Ngala area of the state, following a Boko Haram attack that left 375 people dead in the town.
With the increasing threat to his life, Shettima currently rides in a convoy of 40 vehicles, with his security details always on the alert in the event of surprise attacks from members of the Islamic sect.
In recent months, the insurgents have been aiming with increasing ferocity at soft targets in the state. Surviving victims of such attacks often look up to Shettima, their governor, for consolatory visits. The last thing the governor needed from his people was their disenchantment. So, he must make them his allies since the federal government and his administration seem to be at loggerheads.
After the abduction at Chibok, Shettima dared Boko Haram by visiting the place, despite security report that it was not safe to do so. He told an Abuja-based newspaper, Daily Trust, why he took the risk.
“The visit to Chibok was one decision I had to make against fears over my safety raised by my security details. There was intense fear about the safety of the route to Chibok from some point within Borno. That is while approaching Chibok. It was thought that insurgents could hide around the route for ambush or they could bury explosives or possibly plan a suicide attack.
“I asked myself, if as a governor, with all my normal security details and extra security support, I can’t get there, then what about other citizens who, by compelling reasons, would have to drive through the dreaded route? I was told that others may drive freely at that time, but I would be a big target. I respected all the opinions and appreciated concerns over my safety, but I couldn’t bear remaining in Maiduguri while parents were in Chibok crying and rightly demanding for leadership,” he said.
In a poetic line, Shettima said he was an unhappy governor. “How can I be happy when citizens I am under constitutional oath and with moral and religious duty to protect are being killed? How can I be happy when, as we speak, over 200 daughters of Borno are being held somewhere? How can I be happy when hundreds of Borno sons and daughters are six feet under the ground out of cruelty? How can I be happy when, as a governor, I am forced to close down schools? How can I be happy when hundreds have lost their homes and sources of livelihood? How can I be happy when we have spent over N10 billion that should have been used for developmental needs to resist man’s inhumanity (to man), and yet we are still spending?”
Incidentally, despite Shettima’s trials, his predecessor and benefactor, Modu-Sheriff, has been plotting to oust him in 2015, as both sides struggle to control the All Progressives Congress (APC) structures in the state. Though the two men have claimed they have put their swords in the scabbard, their ambition to control the troubled state in 2015 is a potential flashpoint.