Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Federal Government over its handling of the abduction and release of schoolgirls in Kebbi State, accusing officials of celebrating what he described as a national failure rather than confronting worsening insecurity.
In a statement issued by the Atiku Media Office on Tuesday, the former Vice-President took aim at remarks made by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, during a televised interview where he defended the government’s response to the incident.
Atiku described Onanuga’s comments as “a shameful attempt to whitewash a national tragedy,” arguing that the release of abducted citizens should not be portrayed as an achievement but a reminder of the government’s inability to prevent such attacks in the first place.
The statement questioned the administration’s claims that security agencies had tracked the kidnappers and established contact with them. It queried why, if such claims were true, the kidnappers were neither apprehended nor neutralised.
According to the Atiku Media Office, the government’s narrative “reduces kidnapping to a routine phone call between criminals and state officials,” adding that terrorists are now emboldened to operate openly, negotiate, and escape without consequences.
The statement accused the Tinubu administration of allowing terrorists and bandits to evolve into “an alternative government,” alleging that they now negotiate ransoms and walk away freely while the presidency congratulates itself for their so-called compliance.
“No serious nation applauds itself for negotiating with terrorists it claims to be monitoring,” the statement added, insisting that such an approach exposes either a lack of capacity or a deliberate attempt to distort the truth.
It argued that the government’s response represents “an embarrassing admission that this administration has lost control of national security and is attempting to spin incompetence into achievement.”
Atiku maintained that Nigerians deserve genuine protection and not “fairy tales by moonlight” crafted to mask leadership failures.
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