Shettima Mustapha
Encyclopedia
Shettima Mustapha, OFR
Orders, decorations, and medals of Nigeria
Nigerian National Honours are a set of orders and decorations conferred upon Nigerians and friends of Nigeria every year. They were instituted by the National Honors Act No...

(born 26 November 1939) is a Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n academic and politician who served as Minister of Agriculture (1990-1992), and in 2007 was appointed Minister of Defense in the cabinet of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Later he became Minister of the Interior.
He left office in March 2010 when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, BNER, GCON is the 14th Head of State and current President of Nigeria.He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the...

 dissolved his cabinet.

Background

Shettima Mustapha was born on 26 November 1939 at Nguru
Nguru
Nguru may refer to:* The Pila Nguru, an aboriginal people of Australia* Nguru, a small Māori nose flute from New Zealand* Nguru, Nigeria, a town in Yobe State* The Hadejia-Nguru wetlands, wetlands in northern Nigeria...

, now in Yobe State
Yobe State
Yobe State is a state located in Northern Nigeria. A mainly agricultural state, it was created on August 27, 1991. Yobe state was carved out of present-day Borno State. The capital of Yobe state is Damaturu.-Geography:...

. He attended Borno middle school in Maiduguri
Maiduguri
Maiduguri, also fondly called Yerwa by its locals, is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. The city sits along the seasonal Ngadda River which disappears into the Firki swamps in the areas around Lake Chad...

 (1946-1952). He trained as a Medical Field Assistant in Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...

 (1955-1956).
He worked in the Borno Native Administration (1954-1964) and then with Radio Television Kaduna (1965-1967). In 1967, aged 28, he was admitted into Ahmadu Bello University
Ahmadu Bello University
Ahmadu Bello University is the largest university in Nigeria and second largest in Africa, second only to Cairo University, Egypt. It is situated in Zaria. It was founded on October 4, 1962 as the University of Northern Nigeria....

, graduating in 1972 and then working as a researcher with the university's Institute for Agricultural Research. From 1973 to 1974 he attended the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, where he earned a postgraduate Diploma in Applied Biology. He continued to work towards a PhD, attending Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1978, and obtaining his PhD in 1979.

Public career

Shettima Mustapha was appointed a commissioner in the Borno State
Borno State
Borno State is a state in north-eastern Nigeria. Its capital is Maiduguri. The state was formed in 1976 from the split of the North-Eastern State...

 government under Governor Mohammed Goni
Mohammed Goni
Alhaji Mohammed Goni is a retired civil servant who was Governor of Borno State, Nigeria in the Nigerian Second Republic.-Background:Mohammed Goni was born in 1942 in Kareto, Mobbar Local Government Area, Borno State....

.
He rose steadily in the political ranks and was Vice Presidential candidate on the Nigerian People's Party
Nigerian People's Party
The Nigerian Peoples Party was one of the major political parties that contested elections in the Nigerian Second Republic. The party was made up of three major groups: the Lagos Progressives, Club 19, and the Nigerian Council of Understanding....

 platform in the 1983 election. However, the incumbent Shehu Shagari
Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, Turakin Sakkwato served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic , after the handover of power by General Olusegun Obasanjo's military government....

 of the National Party of Nigeria
National Party of Nigeria
The National Party of Nigeria was the dominant political party in Nigeria during the Second Republic .-Formation:The party's beginning could be traced to private and sometimes secret meetings among key Northern Nigerian leaders after the proscription of political parties in 1966 by the military...

 (NPN) won the election.
After the military coup of December 1983 when Major General Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari was a military ruler of Nigeria and an unsuccessful candidate for president in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 presidential elections...

 came to power, he was jailed until 1985. On his release he returned to part-time teaching at the University of Maiduguri.
He then became a regional head in Jos
Jos
Jos is a city in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.The city has a population of about 1.5 million residents. Popularly called "J-town" or "Jesus Our Saviour" by the residents, it is the administrative capital of Plateau State....

 the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
In August 1990, Shettima Mustafa was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, holding that post until the cabinet dissolved in 1992.

Following this, he became an advisor to various local and international organizations, and became the National Treasurer of the People's Democratic Party
People's Democratic Party (Nigeria)
The People's Democratic Party is a political party in Nigeria. Its policies generally lie towards the right wing of the political spectrum. It has won every single Presidential elections since 1999, namely: 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011, and is the dominant party in the Fourth Republic.-History:In...

 (PDP), a position he held between 1998 and 2001. He became a Fellow of the Genetic Society of Nigeria, a member of the American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Agronomy
The American Society of Agronomy is a scientific and professional society of agronomists and scientists of related disciplines, principally in the United States but with a large number of non-U.S. members as well...

 and a member of the Agricultural Society of Nigeria,
In 2002, Shettima Mustapha was nominated to the board of the Savannah Bank
Savannah Bank
The Savannah Bank is a Nigerian bank whose license was withdrawn in February 2002 and restored in February 2009 after protracted legal battles....

, although he was not a shareholder.

Yar'Adua Cabinet

Shettima Mustapha was appointed Defence Minister of Nigeria
Defence Minister of Nigeria
The Minister of Defence of Nigeria is a senior cabinet official in the Nigerian Federal Executive Council in charge of the Nigerian Ministry of Defence...

 by President Umaru Yar'Adua.
On 14 July 2008, he traded places with Godwin Abbe
Godwin Abbe
Godwin Osagie Abbe Godwin Osagie Abbe Godwin Osagie Abbe (born January 10, 1949 in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria is the Defence Minister of Nigeria since July 14, 2009. Prior to this, he had served as the Nigerian Minister of Interior since July 26, 2007.-Military career:...

, becoming Minister of the Interior.
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