The President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, has said former Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, is not myopic and narrow-minded.
Kaigama said this following the emergence of Shettima as the running mate of the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The Archbishop who spoke in Maiduguri over the weekend siad Shettima was one who was broad and fair to adherents of all religious groups as testified by Christian leaders from all denominations living in Borno.
His words: “I have met Governor Shettima at different Fora, and I must say I have been very much attracted to his personality. He is not the narrow-minded and myopic kind of leader. He is a leader whose vision is broad and whose hands are large enough to embrace everybody. He is also very humble.
“I told His Eminence, the Cardinal, that in some places we go, we have to wait for two hours or three in order to meet some government personalities but in Borno State, the Governor was the one receiving us and bringing us in. We came from different parts of Nigeria, and we are Catholic Bishops.
“It is our tradition to meet always, to interact, to pray, and to express solidarity with ourselves and those who are in need. We are a voice for the people. Our voice is a prophetic voice. We see where things are good, we say it so. Where things are bad, we say it so.
“This is our mission and today we are in Borno State. We are truly overwhelmed with what we have seen. I can tell you we are already convinced that Borno State is on
a very high level gear of progress. They say seeing is believing. We have come, we have seen, and we are convinced there’s a lot of good happenings here.
“Despite all the negative stories about terrorist attacks and so on, there are determined people on ground who have a capable leader in the person of the Governor determined to forge ahead, to inspire peaceful coexistence to encourage people to transcend the temporary obstacles in order that they can build a very solid and vibrant State.
“We are witnesses, and I can tell you we shall go from here to Lagos to Ibadan to Onitsha to Calabar to Lokoja to Abuja to tell this story” Archbishop Kaigama said.