The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called on President Bola Tinubu to step out of the Presidential Villa and interact directly with everyday Nigerians to understand the true state of insecurity across the country.
Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesperson for the opposition coalition, said on Wednesday that the president is being misled by state governors and close aides who are painting a false picture of the situation.
“I actually think President Tinubu needs to leave the Villa, go on the streets, talk to people, and stop listening to this kind of narrative [that insecurity has been degraded],” Abdullahi said.
He accused some governors of telling the president only what they believe will keep them in his good books, rather than conveying the genuine concerns of their people.
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Abdullahi’s remarks were a direct response to statements by Daniel Bwala, a media aide to President Tinubu, who claimed that the security situation in Nigeria has improved under the current administration.
Bwala pointed to relative calm in states like Benue and Plateau, and a decline in attacks linked to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and unknown gunmen.
“Insecurity has been degraded to a large extent,” Bwala said during the programme. “What we are seeing in Nigeria is criminal tendencies that have no core relationship with whether somebody is governing well or not, because it exists in every part of this world.”
But the ADC spokesman strongly disagreed, warning that such claims give the president a false sense of security.
“I feel sorry for President Tinubu because if this is the kind of narrative that he gets to hear all the time, then it is natural and obvious that he lives in a bubble,” Abdullahi said.