TheCable

Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has officially unveiled Kashim Shettima as his running mate in the 2023 presidential election.

The event took place on Wednesday at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

Shettima is a serving senator and former two-term governor of Borno state.

Tinubu had named Shettima as his running mate on July 10.

Shettima was announced as the party’s vice-presidential candidate after Ibrahim Masari stepped down as the “placeholder” running mate of Tinubu.

Masari was in June selected as Tinubu’s running mate — but only in temporary capacity.

Tinubu’s choice of running mate elicited widespread criticisms because both men are Muslims.

But defending his decision, Tinubu said what mattered most was “competence in governance”.

“To forge ahead as a nation toward development and prosperity, we must break free of old binds. We must recalibrate our political calculations to where competence and fairness matter more than reductive demographics,” he had said.