Trending 
Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima has alleged that some individuals from Borno State attempted to turn President Bola Tinubu against him by telling the President that he wanted him dead.
Shettima said the incident occurred barely three months after their inauguration. He alleged that the plotters visited Tinubu and warned him to stop wearing the traditional attire he had given him during the 2023 campaign.
Speaking at the public presentation of the autobiography of former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, titled My Life of Duty and Allegiance, in Abuja on Tuesday, the Vice President said the plotters claimed the garments had been used to charm the President and would lead to his death.
He added that the President paid no attention to the warnings and wore the traditional attire for an entire week in defiance.
Shettima used the story to illustrate the spread of suspicion in Nigeria.
He recalled that, in the lead-up to the 2023 presidential primaries, as Tinubu canvassed for support across the North, he sourced traditional Borno attire and a cap for the then-presidential aspirant to wear at campaign events so he could blend in with northern crowds.
Credit: Channels.
According to Shettima, he had travelled to China in October 2023 to represent Tinubu at the 3rd Belt and Road Initiative Forum, when the plotters visited the President.
He said that upon his return, the President summoned him and informed him about what the plotters had said.
Shettima 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 you will become the president.’”
He added that Tinubu paid no mind to the allegations.
According to Shettima, Tinubu 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.
“For one week, to prove to them that he is not fetish, he wore those dresses. These are some of the gimmicks taking place in power circles in Nigeria nowadays,” Shettima told the audience.
Shettima also praised Gowon, saying his life embodied the opposite of sectarian suspicion.
