KEY POINTS

• Atiku condemned the Ogbomoso school abduction and Katsina mass killings.
• He accused Tinubu of governing “by obituary statements” rather than action.
• Atiku also alleged suppression of images showing the scale of casualties.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Sunday declared that President Bola Tinubu “cannot govern” Nigeria, citing the abduction of pupils in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, and the killing of 31 residents in Malumfashi, Katsina State. Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the twin tragedies expose a presidency that responds to bloodshed with press releases rather than policy.

Furthermore, Atiku charged that Tinubu has reduced governance to “obituary statements,” issuing condolences while attackers operate freely across the North and South West. He argued that Nigerians now wake up to fresh atrocities every morning, yet the Villa offers only scripted sympathy. Consequently, he said, the social contract between the government and the governed has effectively collapsed.

Tinubu fails the security test

According to Atiku, the Ogbomoso incident, in which gunmen seized pupils from a school dormitory, mirrors the Chibok pattern that once shocked the world. Moreover, he said the Malumfashi massacre, which left at least 31 villagers dead, confirms that bandits now move with confidence across Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto. Therefore, Atiku insisted, the Commander-in-Chief must either overhaul the security architecture or admit failure.

In addition, Atiku faulted what he called the deliberate suppression of mass-killing imagery, accusing presidential aides of pressuring editors to bury graphic evidence. However, he warned, hiding pictures does not hide the dead. He said families in Plateau, Benue, Borno and Kaduna already know the scale of the carnage, regardless of what reaches Lagos newsrooms.

Atiku demands security overhaul

Subsequently, Atiku called for an immediate review of service-chief appointments, arguing that the current team has run out of ideas. Additionally, he urged Tinubu to convene an emergency session of the National Security Council and invite governors of frontline states. He stressed that piecemeal deployments cannot replace a coherent national doctrine.

Beyond the military, Atiku pushed for state policing, community intelligence networks and rural road surveillance, all of which his Peoples Democratic Party advanced during the 2023 campaign. Furthermore, he said the federal government must stop treating insecurity as a public-relations problem and start treating it as the existential threat citizens already know it to be.

Villa rejects the criticism

Meanwhile, Tinubu’s media team has dismissed Atiku’s intervention as opposition noise, insisting the president has approved fresh troop deployments and intelligence funding. Nevertheless, Atiku’s camp countered that announcements without arrests, prosecutions or recovered victims amount to nothing. Indeed, Shaibu said Nigerians are tired of “performative governance” while villages burn.

Ultimately, Atiku warned that the 2027 election will turn on security and the economy, and that voters will punish any party that treats their lives as statistics. He said the opposition is consolidating around a single message: Nigerians deserve a president who governs, not one who merely mourns. Therefore, he concluded, Tinubu must either rise to the moment or step aside for leadership equal to the crisis.