Vice President Kashim Shettima has shared a startling story involving alleged political superstition around President Bola Tinubu shortly after the 2023 elections, revealing how a strange warning once reached the Presidency and was firmly dismissed.
Vice President Kashim Shettima has revealed that just three months into President Bola Tinubu’s administration, a group of people from Borno State approached the President and warned him to stop wearing traditional attire that Shettima had given him during the 2023 campaign.
The visitors alleged that the garments had been used to place a charm on him and would ultimately lead to his death. Tinubu, however, dismissed the claim outright and went a step further by deliberately wearing the same clothing for an entire week as a public statement against what he described as a story that “did not add up.”
Shettima made this disclosure while delivering an address at the public presentation of former Head of State Yakubu Gowon’s autobiography, titled “My Life of Duty and Allegiance,” in Abuja on Tuesday, where he represented President Tinubu.
He used the personal anecdote to highlight what he described as the troubling rise of suspicion and distrust in Nigerian public life.
He contrasted this with an account shared by the Sultan of Sokoto, who recalled how his family used to send gallons of fura every week to General Gowon at Dodan Barracks in Lagos during his time in office, and how Gowon accepted the gesture with complete trust and without any suspicion a spirit of goodwill that Shettima lamented has largely disappeared from public life today.
Recounting the full story, Shettima explained that during the lead-up to the 2023 presidential primaries, he sourced traditional Borno attire and a cap for Tinubu to wear at campaign events in the North so the candidate could connect better with northern audiences.
The clothing was well received and Tinubu wore it on several occasions throughout the campaign.
The controversy, however, arose shortly after the election victory.
Upon returning from Beijing in October 2023, where he had represented Tinubu at the Belt and Road Initiative Forum, Shettima was summoned by the President, who relayed the warning from the Borno visitors.
Tinubu noted that the accusation made little sense, pointing out that the clothes were given to him when he was still just an aspirant before he became the candidate and before Shettima became his running mate.
Shettima described the incident as one of many unsettling schemes that now circulate within Nigeria’s power circles, warning that such suspicion is eroding the bonds that hold the country together.
In his broader address, Shettima paid tribute to General Gowon, whom he described as the last surviving member of Nigeria’s post-independence military generation.
He praised Gowon’s legacy, citing the establishment of the NYSC as a tool for national reconciliation and his role in founding ECOWAS, and described the autobiography as a timely reminder of disciplined and purposeful leadership.
He also called for an end to the cycle of violence on the Plateau, drawing on historical and cultural ties shared across the region’s divides.
Shettima closed his remarks by quoting Martin Luther King Jr., urging Nigerians to choose unity over division.
The event was attended by former President Goodluck Jonathan, who chaired the occasion, alongside the Secretary to the Government of the Federation GeorgeAkume, Senate President Godswill Akpabio who was represented, the Sultan of Sokoto, the President of the Court of Appeal, and a number of retired military generals.