Kashim Shettima: Of Betrayal, Power, and Survival.

By: Inuwa Bwala.

“March has returned, and with it the Ides. Beware the men who call you brother.”
Julius Caesar was perhaps Rome’s most trusted general. He crossed the Rubicon for Rome, conquered Gaul for Rome, and pardoned enemies for Rome.

Yet it was neither Gaul nor Pompey: his avowed rivals, that killed him. It was Brutus: his friend, and confidant yet his protégé, who was described as “the noblest Roman of them all.”

Julius Caesar did not slump and died because the daggers were too many, rather, bacause he noticed the person he least expected could betray him amongst those stabbing him: Brutus. In utter shock and disbelief, Caesar slumped, but not before he uttered the word,”And you too Brutus?”.

There is no doubt that, Kashim Shettima was Borno’s most tested governor. He walked into boiling areas, when others fled the state. He rebuilt schools bombed by Boko Haram. He chose to stay in Maiduguri when Abuja offered comfort.
As Vice President, he has carried himself as a true statesman abs the face of the Tinubu administration at national and international meets.

He always speaks of “the sanctity of human life” and calked for swifter and total mobilisationagainst terror.
Yet today, whispers from Borno and Abuja suggest the daggers are not in the bush like that of Boko Haram, they are in the hands of his kinsmen, those he hold family meetings and political meetings with.

Those who could read between the line, may be able to tell, when Shettima gave an anecdote at a recent public function, about the visit by his kinsmen to his boss, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, just three months into the life of the administration.

Like Brutus and the conspirators of the Shakespearean fame, who claimed they did not hate Caesar, but loved Rome more, those who visited Tinubu claimed to love Nigeria more and her President, abd not brcause thry hated Shettima.
Brutus in particular played on a so-called republican pride and his fear of tyranny, which he used in convincing himself that betrayal was patriotism. He struck to “save” Rome.

Shettima’s own “Brutuses” use a different script, relying on Shetyima’s perceived ambition and the attendant battle to keep himself in the balance of power as an alibi.
And in the face of contending forces, they recruited people to plsy out the cards, while remaining in the shadows. The charges may appear different with that if Caesar, but the intents are same. And while still smarting from the Muslim-Muslim debacle, Shettima had hradly setyled in office when they began to spread rumours of him, being too Borno, not enough to be a northerner. Too ambitious, fetish, independent minded and growing too popular. One thing they could not take away from him though us the fact that Shettima is intelligent, shrewd and a master schemer, which his boss knows too well.

I had cause to warn of this years ago seeing Shettima’s passive refusal to pick between kinsmen in place of statesmen to work with him.
I could see through the plots to denigrate a fine emergent nationalist by linking him with Boko Haram, painting him as fetish, portraying him as a religious and ethinic checkbox, all in a bud to undo him. The weapon when he was govetnor was insurgency, but the weapon now is political naivity and stereotyping . The tactic includes convincing his Kanuri kinsmen to fight him, so that “when Kanuri fights Kanuri, others will win. But beyond that, even his Kanuri brothers seem to have an axe to grind with him.
The painful truth remains, that, Caesar’s killers were senators in the Capitol, but Shettima’s challengers may be his own kinsmen: some of whom, he nentored snd no one can ever convince him that, they could ever work against him. In both cases, the dagger is dipped in familiarity.
It cuts deeper because the hands holding it, are either those he mentored or once broke bread with him.

Caesar died because he ignored omens. Not even Calpurnia, his wife’s dream could deter him. He ignored the soothsayer, and shunned the Senate’s mood, thinking goodwill was a good sheild and armor.

Shettima’s March 2027 is loaded with omens too, arising from fresh attacks by vested interests, intrigues amongst political players, betrayal by kinsmen, espionage by aides and attachees, dissertion by hitherto close allies, manipulations in the media, ethnic or religious profiling, clandestine meetings that without communiqués, but with lethal intents, contending forces in the party who whisper that 2027 needs a “new pairing.” indeed, the ides are here, because a second term is near, and second terms birth daggers.

As governor, perhaps Shettima survived by moving rather faster than conspiracy. He outrun, those who want to either even scores or shake off his dominace, and those people have remained at daggers drawn with him
How Shettima Survives, will definitely be a refrence point in power struggles in Nigeria.
But unlike Caesar who never learnt, Shettima is a good student of Robert Greens 48 Laws of Power, and must have drawn lessons from the falls of others before him.

To survive, Shettima must learn to trust, but audit the Praetorians. Caesar trusted Brutus with his life. Shettima cannot afford blind trust. The INEC database compromise and probe shows how insider access kills. Shettima must do what he did as governor: forensic audits, no sacred cows. As I earlier said, he must have his own policy, which must not be changed simply because some people want to determine its content.
He must learnt to keep the people, his own trusted people, and must not loose, as Caesar lost Rome due to his belief in his personal prowess and capacity. Shettima still owns Borno’s streets and still conttols the larger and more lethal political forces in the North.

He should be able to name the Brutus, but should not become an Antony, whom at Caesar’s funeral sparked civil unrest. Shettima cannot afford chaos. He should have a machinery on ground that will expose the plot, without burning the Forum. He should expedite action in uniting the North, and rally the support of kinsmen, even as a counterforce, or risks allowing the real enemies to win.

Importantly, he should bear in mind, that, the parabolical March is not the end, the ides pass. For Caesar, it ended at Pompey’s statue, but for Shettima, March can end with a stronger alliance. He must do what he told the nation: “We choose light over shadow, and hope over despair”.
The Verdict of History, had
Brutus dying on his own sword, muttering, “Caesar, now be still.” Betrayal did not save the Republic, rather it buried it.
Shettima’s kinsmen face the same choice. They can strike and wait for the verdict of history, or they can sheathe the dagger and remember: the real enemy still sleeps someehere else.

Twelve years ago, I wrote that Shettima’s ides would test Borno. In 2026, I state without fear of contradiction, that, they will test Nigeria.
Caesar ignored the soothsayer because he was in so much hurry. Shettima, as always, may not be in a hurry, but should he decide to, that hurry may yet save him.

Kashim Shettima: Of Betrayal, Power, and Survival.