By Omeiza Ajayi, ABUJA
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has demanded that President Bola Tinubu immediately mobilise all security and intelligence agencies to secure the unconditional release of schoolchildren and their teachers abducted in Oyo State, warning that a government unable to protect schoolchildren has failed one of the most basic tests of leadership.
Atiku, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described the reported dispatch of government officials bearing bags of rice and other palliatives to the families of victims as cruel, morally bankrupt, and an open confession of failure.
“The cruelty of such a response is difficult to comprehend. Parents whose children have been torn from their arms are not asking for rice. Mothers who do not know whether their children are hungry, sick, traumatised, or even alive are not demanding palliatives.
“Fathers who wake up every morning praying for a phone call announcing the safe return of their children are not looking for handouts. What these families need is action. What they need is leadership. What they need is a government capable of rescuing their children and bringing the criminals responsible to justice,” he said.
The former Vice President said the abduction was yet another tragic reminder that under the Tinubu administration, insecurity had ceased to be an emergency and had become a way of life.
“It is a damning verdict on this government that while criminals operate with audacity and freedom, innocent schoolchildren are abducted from their classrooms, and the official response is the distribution of rice. This is not governance. This is an abdication of responsibility. It is a tragic confession of failure by an administration that seems increasingly overwhelmed by the very duties it swore to perform,” Atiku said.
He cautioned that normalising insecurity had pushed Nigeria into a dangerous reality in which citizens lived under constant fear, noting that many Nigerian parents now budget for ransom the same way they budget for school fees.
“There must be consequences for those who prey on innocent Nigerians. Anything less will only embolden other criminal gangs and place more communities in danger,” Atiku warned.
The former vice president said Nigerians were exhausted by excuses and tired of speeches from a government that appeared unable to perform its most fundamental duty, insisting that if the administration could no longer guarantee the safety of Nigerian children, it should have the humility to admit failure rather than insult grieving families with token palliatives.
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