Insecurity in Nigeria: Step Out of the Villa and Face the Streets – ADC Tells President Tinubu

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has made a bold appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, urging him to leave the comfort of the Presidential Villa and engage with ordinary citizens directly on the streets to grasp the harsh realities of insecurity in Nigeria. The party emphasized that only by stepping into the lives of everyday Nigerians can the president truly understand the depth of the ongoing national security crisis.

Bolaji Abdullahi, the spokesperson for the opposition party, made this assertion on Wednesday during a live appearance on Politics Today, a popular political program on Channels Television.

According to Abdullahi, President Tinubu is being misinformed by state governors and some of his closest advisers, who continue to feed him inaccurate assessments of the security situation across various regions in the country.

“I sincerely believe that President Tinubu needs to get out of the Villa and speak directly with people on the ground. He should stop listening to this misleading narrative that insecurity has been significantly degraded,” Abdullahi declared.

He went further to criticize state governors, accusing them of presenting sanitized versions of reality to maintain their positions of influence and favor rather than conveying the genuine struggles and fears of the masses.

Abdullahi’s critique was in response to recent remarks by Daniel Bwala, a media aide to President Tinubu, who argued that insecurity in Nigeria has seen significant improvements under the current administration. Bwala highlighted positive changes in Benue and Plateau States, along with what he described as a decline in violent operations linked to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and unidentified armed groups.

“Insecurity has been downgraded significantly,” Bwala asserted during the interview. “What we’re currently witnessing are random criminal acts, not necessarily tied to bad governance, as these issues are not unique to Nigeria alone but happen globally.”

However, the ADC spokesperson firmly disagreed, warning that such statements risk putting the president in a dangerous state of illusion, unaware of the pain and terror citizens face daily.

“I honestly feel sympathy for President Tinubu because if these are the types of filtered narratives he’s constantly fed, then it’s no surprise that he appears disconnected from the reality on the ground,” Abdullahi noted.

He further stressed that numerous Nigerian communities remain deeply affected by violent criminal activity, and that ordinary citizens are still grappling with life-threatening conditions, instability, and economic hardship brought on by rampant insecurity.

Abdullahi’s statements underscore growing concerns that the federal government may be operating within an echo chamber, shielded from firsthand reports and the true experiences of millions of Nigerians facing kidnappings, rural attacks, and other forms of violent extremism.