Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday revealed that barely three months after President Bola Tinubu was sworn into office, some people from Borno State visited the President and warned him to stop wearing the traditional attire he had given him during the 2023 campaign.
He said they alleged the garments had been used to charm the President and would lead to his death.
Shettima, however, said Tinubu not only rejected the claim but responded by deliberately wearing the clothing for an entire week as a public rebuke to what he called a story that “did not add up.”
The Vice President disclosed this in his address at the public presentation of the autobiography of the former Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon (retd), titled “My Life of Duty and Allegiance,” in Abuja on Tuesday.
Shettima, who represented the President at the event, used the incident to illustrate what he described as the dangerous spread of suspicion in Nigerian public life.
He also compared the rising spate of suspicion with the Sultan of Sokoto’s account of how Gowon would receive gallons of fura sent weekly from the Sultan’s family in Sokoto to Dodan Barracks in Lagos.
He noted that Gowon accepted the gesture without any suspicion, in a spirit of trust that he said has since been eroded.
