Former presidential candidate accuses Bola Tinubu of failing to show compassion or leadership more than 50 days after schoolchildren were abducted in Oyo State
Peter Obi has renewed his demand for President Bola Tinubu to resign, describing the federal government’s handling of the Oyo State schoolchildren abduction as further evidence of a complete collapse in governance and a lack of basic compassion.
The former Anambra State governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate made the call after travelling to Ibadan on Friday, 3 July, with Professor Pat Utomi to meet Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde. The two men spent two hours with the governor to express solidarity, more than seven weeks after armed men abducted the schoolchildren.
During the meeting Mr Obi shared his own experience of tackling insecurity while governor of Anambra State. He recalled that former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan had personally telephoned state governors on multiple occasions whenever serious security incidents occurred.
Mr Obi said he was shocked to learn that Governor Makinde had not received a single telephone call from President Tinubu about the abducted children. He contrasted this with the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping, when it took President Jonathan more than two weeks to contact the Borno State governor. At the time, Mr Tinubu had been among the loudest voices demanding President Jonathan’s immediate resignation over the delay.
The former governor pointed out that more than 13 school kidnappings have now occurred under the current administration, yet after more than 50 days the president has still not contacted the chief executive of the affected state. He described the situation as “outrageous” and said it reflected “a total lack of capacity and compassion, compounded by glaring insensitivity”.
Mr Obi, who has spoken publicly about the Oyo incident on two previous occasions and appealed directly to the kidnappers to release the children, said he had also telephoned Governor Makinde twice to offer support. He stressed that the crisis was a national tragedy, not merely an Oyo State problem.
He concluded that, given the apparent display of incompetence, President Tinubu should either resign or, at the very least, rule himself out of seeking re-election “for the sake of our dear country”. No issue, he said, was more important than the lives of the kidnapped children, their teachers and the many other Nigerians still being held captive across the country.
The strong statement is the latest in a series of criticisms Mr Obi has levelled at the Tinubu administration over its handling of insecurity and the economy.
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