The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Adewole Adebayo has hit the President Bola Tinubu government over the wave of insecurity in the northern part of the country.
Recently, Kwara, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Sokoto and Kano States have witnessed abductions and killings by bandits and terrorists.
Over 200 children kidnapped by Fulani terrorist at St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, are still in captivity. Bandits have been terrorising communities across most of the states in the North-Central and North-west, leaving thousands of Nigerians displaced in their own country.
In an interview with Daily Post, Adebayo dismissed the notion that the opposition is unduly taking advantage of the insecurity in the country to score cheap political point.
He bemoaned the state of the nation under Tinubu, saying the President cannot expect to be praised when the economy and insecurity are far from what Nigerians desire.
The politician said the north is fast becoming what Somalia and Afghanistan look like under Tinubu.
“Well, if the president wants to be helped, from what we say, he can pick up enough help. But if you say we are making capital of misfortune, then they are producing too many misfortunes because if you think that the opposition is taking advantage of your misfortune, then you should reduce the amount of misfortune you have. You can’t fail in every aspect, critical, primary, basic and even tertiary,” he stated.
“You fail in security, fail in the economy, fail in culture and fail even in sports. So, you fail in everything. And you expect that people are not going to remark on those failures. Are you saying that a community with people running helter-skelter, where even you, people in your administration, don’t feel safe, where even the community you come from doesn’t feel safe, is okay? And the vast resources of Nigeria are located in the northern part of Nigeria.
“The entire north is closer to Somalia than it is to what Nigeria used to be. So, you cannot Afghanstanise your own country and expect people to sing your praises. You cannot take every index that you met and make it worse. Unemployment is worse, inflation is worse, security is worse, the international profile of the country is worse.
“You either don’t have the competence to appoint ambassadors, or you can’t find competent ambassadors to appoint. Either side of the coin is a failure. So, you can’t police the state, you can’t secure the state. You fail. You don’t even have enough mental capacity to explain your failure.”
