Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president of Nigeria, has knocked President Bola Tinubu over the worsening state of insecurity in the country.
Atiku, who was the presidential flagbearer for the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections, asked Tinubu to step down if he was overwhelmed, stressing that Nigeria does not need another “Tourist-in-Chief.”
Expressing his dismay through his verified X account on Tuesday, Atiku decried that the president is on a private visit while citizens are left at the mercy of kidnappers, insurgents, and several other criminals.
“Tinubu is playing fiddle while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity. To imagine that the Commander-in-Chief is on a so-called private visit while kidnappers kill a nursing mother and grandmother in Abuja for failing to pay a N90m ransom and two monarchs in Ekiti, among other regular tragedies besetting Nigerians, Atiku wrote.
“If the shoes are too big for Emilokan, he should step aside. Nigeria does not need another tourist-in-chief. The country needs 24/7 leadership to confront the pervasive insecurity and collapsing economy, he added.
On Monday, about 50 civil society groups, under the aegis of the Civil Society Joint Action Group, reported that 2,423 persons had been killed, while 1,872 others had been abducted in the eight months since Tinubu’s administration began.
They also disclosed that at least 24,816 Nigerians have been killed and 15,597 persons abducted between 2019 and 2023, while expressing concern about the state of insecurity in the country due to the spate of bandits’ attacks, killings and abductions across the country, including the nation’s capital.
Meanwhile, Tinubu is currently in Paris, France, for a private visit. He departed last Wednesday and did not state the reasons for the visit.
The President is expected to return to the country in the first week of February 2024.
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