Tinubu Enabling Insecurity, Has Lost Control Of Government, Says Adebayo

Former 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, has accused President Bola Tinubu of enabling Nigeria’s worsening insecurity and losing grip of the government.

He also accused the federal government of already having the tools to track and arrest kidnappers but instead, they are choosing not to use them.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, Adebayo said all the different explanations offered by government officials including claims of sabotage, political orchestration or foreign interference point to one conclusion that the administration has failed.

According to him, the motive of criminals is irrelevant when the government lacks the capacity or will to stop them.

He argued that Nigeria’s security architecture is robust enough to intercept kidnappers if used properly, pointing out that ordinary citizens are tracked easily for minor issues, yet criminals move freely with abducted victims.

“The first enemy of the government is the government. The first enemy of the people is the government. You cannot commit a crime and last one week, one month if you don’t have government people cooperating with you.

“I cannot send N5,000 to my wife without security agencies knowing. You cannot buy a SIM card without your BVN and NIN. Why then are kidnappers communicating freely? The only explanation is that the government is enabling this insecurity,” he said.

He noted that ransom payments involving millions of naira should ordinarily raise red flags within the banking system, yet such transactions proceed without disruption.

He dismissed arguments that the police lack manpower, describing such claims as excuses unfit for an administration still in office. According to him, security failures persist not because of insufficient personnel but because of ineffectiveness and lack of leadership.

“This is a government that could capture somebody in Nairobi, Kenya and bring here for trial and sentence the person. But they cannot capture people who are going around,” he said, making reference to IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

He also criticised the Inspector-General of Police’s habit of travelling to crisis zones, saying it reflects poor command structure and what he called episodic governance. He said that the police hierarchy is designed for commanders to give instructions from their duty posts, not to “campaign around the country”.

He advised President Tinubu to stop “communicating failure” and emulate past leaders who demanded immediate results from security chiefs.

“The President needs to call the armed forces to deal with the terrorists and all of that and for kidnappers and all these opportunistic criminals who are taking easy targets, he needs to call the IGP and tell him, my friend, if I hear one more kidnapping, you are gone,” he said.

Furthermore, Adebayo accused the government of focusing more on foreign trips and political calculations than on domestic security, arguing that Tinubu’s recent attention to the crisis only came after U.S. President Donald Trump commented on Nigeria’s deteriorating situation.

He also faulted the president for failing to appoint ambassadors to key countries, which he described as an administrative lapse that undermines Nigeria’s global standing, saying the root of Nigeria’s problem is the president himself.

“Let us summarize Nigeria’s problem. Spell it as T-I-N-U-B-U. Tinubu is the problem of the country because all the powers are vested in him and he’s playing with the powers. He’s not being serious. He’s a brilliant person.

“If you study his profile because you must study your opponent, he’s a highly brilliant person. I’m sure you know that teachers in educational curriculum and all development will tell you that very brilliant students can be very lazy, unruly and not serious because they won’t study.

“A lot of brilliant people have failed because they are not serious and the president has been really like an emperor,” he stated.

He claimed state institutions were underperforming because the president treats governors as political assets rather than partners in security management saying that the president does not have security meetings with the governors to ask what’s happening in their states.

According to him, the government, despite having the ability to secure its people, has ignored the suffering of communities battling kidnappers, one-chance syndicates and rising violence nationwide.

“We can secure ourselves, We’ve just got the wrong government,” he said.