Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the worsening security situation in the country, accusing the Federal Government of responding to killings and kidnappings with mere statements instead of decisive action.
Atiku’s reaction followed the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, as well as recent killings in Katsina State, including the reported murder of a pregnant woman.
In a statement issued on Tuesday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president described the incidents as further evidence of a deepening security crisis across the country.
He said he was particularly disturbed by reports that one of the teachers kidnapped during the Ogbomoso incident had been killed.
“At a time when armed criminals are abducting schoolchildren, slaughtering innocent citizens, and turning communities into graveyards, President Tinubu’s response remains the same tired ritual: condemn the killings, threaten that the perpetrators will face the ‘full wrath of the law,’ and then wait for the next massacre,” Atiku said.
According to him, repeated official condemnations had become ineffective and meaningless in the face of continuous attacks.
“Nigerians have heard this script too many times. It has become painfully predictable and utterly meaningless,” he stated.
The former vice president accused the administration of relying on public statements after tragedies rather than implementing proactive security measures.
“President Tinubu must stop governing by obituary statements. Enough of the recycled outrage. Enough of the empty threats. Nigerians are dying, and this government keeps responding with press releases,” he added.
“A President who only finds his voice after blood has been spilt is not leading but presiding over failure.”
Atiku argued that the attacks in Oyo and Katsina states reflected a broader collapse of security and state authority nationwide.
“The horrifying abduction in Ogbomoso and the gruesome killings in Katsina are not isolated incidents,” he said.
“They are part of a grim national pattern in which criminals operate with terrifying confidence because they no longer fear the Nigerian state.”
He further stated that the continued attacks on schools and communities suggested that criminal groups no longer feared consequences from the government.
“When terrorists can invade schools, abduct children and teachers, butcher pregnant women, sack entire communities, and disappear without consequence, it is because the authority of the state has collapsed,” Atiku said.
The former vice president also accused the government of allegedly attempting to suppress evidence and images relating to killings across the country.
“If this government is indeed more interested in censoring evidence of mass killings than in preventing the killings themselves, then that is not merely incompetence, it is cruelty of the highest order,” he stated.
“No serious government hides the blood of its citizens to protect political optics. A government that cannot protect the living but seeks to censor evidence of their deaths has lost every moral right to govern.”
Atiku described the current security situation as “a moral failure, a leadership failure, and a national disgrace,” insisting that Nigerians deserved more than “performative outrage and ceremonial condolences.”
He called for the immediate rescue of victims abducted in Oyo State, urgent security interventions in vulnerable communities and a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s security architecture.