Vice President Kashim Shettima has recounted how President Bola Tinubu dismissed claims that traditional Borno outfits gifted to him during the 2023 campaign were spiritually manipulated to harm him.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the launch of former Head of State Yakubu Gowon’s autobiography, My Life of Duty and Allegiance, Shettima said the incident happened shortly after the current administration assumed office.
According to the Vice President, some individuals from Borno allegedly approached Tinubu and urged him to stop wearing the traditional attire Shettima had earlier provided for campaign outings in the North. They reportedly claimed the garments were used to charm the President and predicted he would die in office, paving the way for Shettima to take over.
Rather than entertain the allegation, Shettima said Tinubu openly rejected it and intentionally continued wearing the outfits for days to prove he was not influenced by superstition.
Recounting the moment, Shettima said the President told him after his return from an official trip to China, “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.”
The Vice President explained that Tinubu immediately dismissed the accusation because, at the time the clothes were given to him, both of them were still struggling for political tickets.
“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,” Shettima quoted the President as saying.
He added, “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.”
Shettima said the story reflected the growing atmosphere of distrust in the country, contrasting it with the relationship that existed during Gowon’s era.
Drawing from an earlier remark by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Vice President noted that Gowon once received gallons of fura weekly from the Sultan’s family in Sokoto while serving as Head of State in Dodan Barracks, Lagos, without suspicion or fear.
“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,” he said.
Shettima also praised Gowon’s contributions to national unity, highlighting the establishment of the National Youth Service Corps and his role in strengthening regional cooperation through ECOWAS.
Describing the former military leader as “the last man standing” among Nigeria’s post-independence military generation, Shettima said Gowon’s autobiography comes at a critical period for the country.
“There are people who are remembered before they leave office.
“There are others whose memory endures because office became, in their hands, an instrument of national meaning. General Gowon belongs to the second company,” he stated.
He concluded his remarks with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., urging Nigerians to embrace unity despite political, ethnic, and religious differences.
“Let us learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools,” he stated.