Some people told Tinubu I charmed him with clothes I gave him — Shettima
Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday revealed that some people from Borno State once warned President Bola Tinubu to stop wearing traditional outfits he received from Shettima during the 2023 election campaign, claiming the clothes had been used to charm him and could lead to his death.
According to Shettima, Tinubu dismissed the allegation and deliberately wore the outfits for an entire week to prove there was nothing mystical about them.
The Vice President made the disclosure in Abuja while representing Tinubu at the public presentation of My Life of Duty and Allegiance, the autobiography of former Head of State Yakubu Gowon.
Using the incident to highlight what he described as the growing culture of suspicion in Nigeria, Shettima contrasted present-day mistrust with the relationship between Gowon and the family of the Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III.
He said, “His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, had been narrating the story of the family of the Sultan sending gallons of fura every week to General Yakubu Gowon in Dodan Barracks, because of the trust and confidence General Gowon was willingly receiving it without any suspicion.
“But now the game is different. Suspicion smears our relationships, and it ought not to be. We are essentially one people tied to a common destiny.”
Shettima recalled that during the 2023 presidential primaries, he sourced traditional Borno attire and a cap for Tinubu to wear while campaigning across Northern Nigeria. The outfits, he said, were well received and became a regular part of Tinubu’s campaign wardrobe.
The controversy, however, surfaced shortly after the administration took office.
Shettima said that after returning from Beijing, where he represented Tinubu at the 3rd Belt and Road Initiative Forum in October 2023, the President summoned him and recounted what some visitors from Borno had told him.
He narrated, “When I came back from China, where I had represented him at the Belt and Road Initiative Conference, he said: ‘Sit down. Your people came to me and said I should stop wearing those dresses you gave me. They said I must have been charmed, and that I am going to die and he will become the president.’”
Shettima said Tinubu immediately dismissed the claim.
According to Shettima, he responded, “Their story did not add up, because when you gave me those dresses, I was an aspirant. I wasn’t even the candidate. Neither were you the vice-presidential candidate.”
He added that the President intentionally kept wearing the clothes to debunk the allegation.
“For one week, to prove to them that he is not fetish, he wore those dresses.
“These are some of the gimmicks that are taking place in power circles in Nigeria nowadays.”
In his remarks, Shettima praised Gowon as a statesman whose legacy stood in contrast to the divisions and mistrust currently affecting the country.
He cited Gowon’s role in establishing the National Youth Service Corps and his contributions to the founding of Economic Community of West African States.
Describing the former leader as “the last man standing” among Nigeria’s post-independence military generation, Shettima said the memoir is “a bottom of memory at a time when our country needs a discipline of remembrance.”
Vanguard News
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