Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has launched a scathing attack on President Bola Tinubu over the prolonged abduction of schoolchildren in Oyo State, declaring that the President’s failure to personally engage with Governor Seyi Makinde more than 50 days after the incident reflects a total collapse of governance.
In a statement made available to The News Chronicle, Obi said the greatest consequence of uncompassionate leadership is the transformation of citizens’ frustration into deep and dangerous resentment, arguing that the situation becomes even more tragic when those in power display both incapacity and a lack of empathy.
He said the people and government of Oyo State have every reason to feel abandoned, lamenting that despite more than 50 days in captivity, there has been no tangible progress toward securing the release of the abducted schoolchildren.
The former Anambra State governor revealed that he had publicly addressed the incident twice, including appealing directly to the kidnappers to release the children.
He also disclosed that he had called Governor Seyi Makinde on two occasions to express solidarity, stressing that the tragedy transcends Oyo State and has become a national concern.
Obi said that on Friday, July 3, he travelled to Ibadan alongside Prof. Pat Utomi to personally sympathise with Makinde after the prolonged ordeal of the abducted pupils and the continued captivity of many other Nigerians across the country.
According to him, during their two-hour meeting, he shared his experience in tackling insecurity as governor of Anambra State, recalling that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan personally reached out to governors whenever major security crises occurred in their states.
However, Obi said he was shocked to learn that President Tinubu had not made a single phone call to Governor Makinde since the abduction.
“I was stunned to discover that, contrary to my assumption that they had been in regular communication, Governor Seyi Makinde had not received a single call from President Bola Tinubu,” he said.
Drawing a comparison with the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Obi recalled that although security agencies provided regular updates, both Nigerians and the international community criticised Jonathan for taking more than two weeks to contact the then governor of the affected state.
He further noted that Tinubu was among the prominent opposition figures who demanded Jonathan’s immediate resignation over what they described as his slow response to the Chibok tragedy.
“That same call for immediate resignation should now apply in this matter,” Obi declared.
He lamented that more than 13 school kidnapping incidents have occurred under Tinubu’s administration, yet the President has allegedly failed to personally reach out to the governor of the affected state more than seven weeks after the latest abduction.
Describing the development as “outrageous,” Obi said he suspected similar presidential inaction had occurred in previous school kidnapping cases.
“I cannot imagine any issue more important than the lives of our kidnapped children, their teachers and the many other Nigerians being held captive across the country,” he said.
Obi maintained that the situation has exposed what he described as a complete collapse of governance under the Tinubu administration, accusing the government of lacking both the capacity and compassion required to confront Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.
He argued that the administration’s handling of the crisis reflects glaring insensitivity and incompetence.
The former presidential candidate insisted that, in the interest of the country, President Tinubu should either resign or decline to seek re-election.
