The African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Bola Tinubu to step down as the leader of Nigeria.
Atiku in a statement on Thursday, connected the insecurity challenges bedevilling the country to the leadership failure of the Tinubu administration.
He said President Tinubu has failed in the responsibility of protecting the citizens of the country.
The ADC Presidential candidate has expressed deep concern about the worsening insecurity in the country, noting that it posed a direct threat to the country’s education system and made a mockery of the so-called Safe Schools initiative.
Atiku described the frequency with which terrorists threaten citizens with impunity without appropriate response from the government as embarrassing.
The former Vice President was said to have spoken against the backdrop of the recent happenings in which not less than 42 school children were abducted on the 15th of May in terrorist raids on the Government Day Secondary School, Mussa Central Primary School, and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Secondary School in Mussa town, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State.
Similarly, more than 40 students and teachers were abducted from Community High School, Ahoro-Esiele; Primary School, Esiele; and Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School, all in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo state.
The terrorists then beheaded a teacher in a gruesome manner, while the victims remain captive.
Atiku said the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration was still making empty promises, despite the prevailing challenges.
He therefore urged the federal government to speed up action on the safe release of school children abducted in Oyo and Borno states.
While acknowledging that the primary responsibility of any government is the security and welfare of the governed, Atiku urged Tinubu to step down from office in the interest of Nigerians.
“The president, Tinubu, has no moral or political latitude to stay in Aso Villa a day longer when tens of hundreds of abducted citizens languish in captivity across the country.
“Which government will allow non-state actors to turn its national territory into killing fields and a haven for kidnapping and extortion?” the Waziri of Adamawa asked.
Atiku said security should not be a political slogan and that the citizens will only be impressed by a prompt and effective response to security challenges.
Allowing terrorist abductions to drag on, he added, creates incentives for future attacks on schools by criminal elements.
“Impunity encourages the terrorists, increases their determination to carry out future attacks. “The citizens look up to the government for urgent and prompt interventions to banditry and terrorist attacks,” Atiku said, adding that “the government must project confidence in the minds of the citizens that it is capable of protecting them at all times,” he said.
The former Vice President pointedly said official condemnations of terrorist abductions are not enough if they are not followed up with prompt rescue action.
He called for the speedy dispensation of justice in the trial of arrested terrorists, lamenting the delay in Nigeria’s criminal justice system, where terrorism trials drag on endlessly.
“We need special courts to fast track the trial of terrorists and bandits in the country and we need it urgently. Moreover, the country must impose the death penalty for terrorism offences. But the death penalty itself will not be effective if the government does not have the political will to sign death warrants for convicted terrorists promptly,” he said.
