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Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has described reports that 5,091 Nigerians were killed in violent incidents across the country within three months as a damning indictment of the Tinubu administration’s handling of national security.
Atiku, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the reported killings should not be treated as mere statistics but as a grim reflection of the human cost of insecurity and the government’s failure to adequately protect lives and property.
“Behind every number is a Nigerian whose life was cut short, a family thrown into mourning, children deprived of parents and communities condemned to fear. Five thousand and ninety-one reported killings in just three months should trouble the conscience of any government,” he said.
Atiku argued that the worsening security situation was linked not only to operational challenges but also to what he described as fiscal indiscipline, wasteful spending and inadequate implementation of appropriations for critical national priorities.
“These figures are the human cost of every padded budget, every frivolous expenditure and every failure to fully implement funds appropriated for critical national priorities,” he said.
According to him, the government cannot continue to spend scarce public resources on questionable and politically expedient projects while expecting security personnel to confront increasingly sophisticated threats without adequate resources.
“You cannot run the public treasury as though it were a private purse, squander scarce resources on questionable priorities and then expect soldiers and other security personnel on the frontlines to perform miracles,” Atiku said.
He added that the continued failure to properly fund security operations weakens the capacity of the Armed Forces and other security agencies to respond effectively to terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
Atiku welcomed the recently announced pay increase for military personnel but maintained that improved salaries alone would not resolve the challenges confronting troops on the frontlines.
“Our soldiers deserve better pay, but morale is about much more than salaries. They require adequate equipment, operational funding, timely allowances, proper welfare for their families and the assurance that the government they defend is as committed to their mission as they are,” he said.
The former vice president called on the Federal Government to urgently review its spending priorities, eliminate waste and questionable expenditure, and ensure substantially better implementation of appropriations for defence and national security.
Atiku said the protection of citizens remained the most fundamental responsibility of government and that persistent insecurity amounted to a failure of that responsibility.
“A government that cannot protect its citizens has failed the first test of governance. Nigerians cannot continue to pay with their lives for the failures, waste and misplaced priorities of an administration that has failed in its most basic constitutional duty,” he said.
He stressed that every Nigerian killed through terrorism, banditry, kidnapping or other violent crimes represented a profound failure of the state to fulfil its obligation to protect its citizens.
“These are not mere statistics. They were fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, breadwinners and citizens who had every right to expect protection from their government.
“Today, we have 5,091 reported killings in just three months, 5,091 shattered families, 5,091 indictments of this administration’s security failures, and ultimately, 5,091 reasons this government must go,” Atiku said.
