ABUJA — In a startling departure from the usually guarded protocols of Nigeria’s executive branch, Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday pulled back the veil on the deep-seated intrigues, conspiracy theories, and petty rivalries that lubricate the wheels of power in the Presidential Villa.
Speaking in Abuja at the high-profile public presentation of “My Life of Duty and Allegiance,” the autobiography of former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, Shettima revealed that barely three months after their inauguration in 2023, a group of political actors attempted to engineer a fatal rift between him and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu using claims of witchcraft and assassination plots.
The Northern Campaign Wardrobe
According to the Vice President, the roots of the bizarre episode began during the intense consultative campaigns ahead of the 2023 All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries. Seeking to ensure that the then-aspirant Bola Tinubu blended seamlessly with the northern grassroots crowds, Shettima personally sourced traditional northern fabrics and distinct caps from his home state of Borno for his principal.
The aesthetic strategy was an instant success. Tinubu’s close political aides praised the fit and look of the traditional attire, prompting Shettima to order a larger batch of the garments, which Tinubu wore prominently throughout his northern tour.
However, what began as an innocent gesture of political solidarity was quickly weaponized by internal detractors once the election was won and the reality of governance set in.
The Plot to Settle Scores
Addressing an audience that included former heads of state, traditional rulers, and top diplomats, Shettima recounted how a delegation from his own home state of Borno approached the President with a terrifying warning shortly after the administration took the oath of office.
“Barely three months after we were sworn into office, some of my people from Borno came to the President and said, ‘Stop wearing those Shettima clothings. He must have charmed them. And you’re going to die, and he will automatically become the president,’” Shettima shared.
The disclosure sent a visible ripple of mixed amusement and gravity through the auditorium, highlighting the extent to which traditional superstitions and the fear of the “poisoned chalice” are still invoked within contemporary Nigerian political maneuvering.
A Test of Executive Synergy
The true weight of the anecdote, however, lay in how President Tinubu chose to manage the intelligence. Rather than yielding to paranoiac impulses or allowing a wall of suspicion to grow between himself and his deputy, Tinubu waited for Shettima to return from an official trip representing Nigeria at the Belt and Road Initiative Conference in Beijing, China, in October 2023.
Upon Shettima’s return, the President summoned him to his private quarters, asked him to sit down, and laid out the allegations with characteristic pragmatism.
According to the Vice President, Tinubu dismissed the witchcraft narrative on pure logic. He noted that the timeline presented by the detractors made no sense. At the time Shettima gifted the clothes, Tinubu was merely one of many presidential aspirants fighting for the ticket, and Shettima had not even been selected as his running mate.
To deliver a final, public rebuke to the merchants of discord, the President did something entirely unexpected: he deliberately wore the exact same “Shettima garments” every single day for an entire week to prove he was completely unbothered by the superstitious claims.
“These are some of the gimmicks that are taking place in power circles in Nigeria nowadays,” Shettima remarked, framing the story as a cautionary tale of how easily political subordinates manufacture crises out of nothing to gain favor or isolate the leader.
