06/02/2026
Mr. President, Stop Blaming Politics for the Blood of Nigerians
By Dr. Nana Akaeze
This is my voice. This is my belief.
There comes a time when leadership must stop hiding behind excuses and face the mirror of responsibility.
Nigeria has reached that time.
When 49 villagers can be confirmed dead in fresh attacks across Kebbi and Kwara States, while troops in Plateau State are still battling suspected terrorists in forest corridors, this is no longer ordinary insecurity.
When one person can be killed and more than 30 others abducted in Ayegunle Bunu, Kogi State, in the early hours of the morning, this is no longer a routine security breach. This is a national emergency. This is a failure of protection. This is a bleeding wound on the soul of Nigeria.
According to the Punch report of April 11, 2026, authored by Dare Akogun, Animasahun Salman, James Abraham, and Toheeb Omotayo, no fewer than 49 villagers were confirmed dead after coordinated attacks in Kebbi and Kwara States.
In Kebbi alone, at least 44 persons were killed in coordinated attacks on villages in Shanga Local Government Area. The affected communities included Gebe, Kalkami, Kawara, Kasoshi, Awaye, Tungar Rini, Binuwa, and Dabe. Families were thrown into mourning. Communities were displaced. Rural life was again reminded that the Nigerian state is often absent when the poor need protection most.
In Kwara State, five forest guards were killed in Nuku village, Kaiama Local Government Area. These were not political actors. They were not campaign strategists. They were not enemies of government. They were community protectors who died in the line of duty while trying to defend their people.
Then, on June 2, 2026, Vanguard reported through Boluwaji Obahopo that Ayegunle Bunu community in Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State was thrown into panic after a bandit attack left one person dead and more than 30 others abducted.
Some victims were residents. Others were passengers traveling in a commercial bus intercepted by attackers. Again, ordinary Nigerians became victims of a country that has failed to secure its roads, villages, forests, and homes.
So when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently suggested that some politicians are using insecurity to play politics and undermine his government, one must ask: Mr. President, are the dead villagers playing politics? Are the abducted passengers playing politics? Are the murdered forest guards playing politics? Are the grieving mothers, displaced farmers, traumatized children, and kidnapped travelers all part of a conspiracy to embarrass your government?
This line of defense is unacceptable.
Nigerians are not dying to make the President look bad. Nigerians are dying because the government has not protected them well enough.
Leadership Is Responsibility, Not Complaint
President Tinubu must understand that the burden of leadership is not removed by blaming enemies. Every president has critics. Every government has opposition. Every leader faces political attacks. But insecurity is not solved by accusing opponents of weaponizing it.
Insecurity is solved by protecting citizens, securing communities, prosecuting criminals, dismantling sponsors, controlling borders, and restoring public confidence.
Mr. President, Nigerians did not force you into office. You campaigned for the office. You told Nigerians you understood their problems. You assured the nation that you had the capacity, courage, experience, and political wisdom to fix what was broken. You inherited a country in pain, but you cannot now speak as if you were an outsider to the system that produced that pain.
You reportedly said, “I took over from myself; Buhari was my partner.” That statement matters. It means you cannot fully separate yourself from the previous administration. It means you knew what you were coming into. It means you understood the scale of insecurity, economic hardship, banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, and public suffering before taking power.
If you took over from yourself, then you also inherited responsibility from yourself.
If Buhari was your partner, then the insecurity under Buhari was not foreign to you.
If you knew the problem before coming into office, then Nigerians have the right to expect more than explanations. They have the right to demand results.
At this point, Mr. President, you must take responsibility and accept that your government has failed so far in the area that matters most: the protection of life and property.
This Is Not Hatred; This Is Pain Speaking
The President must not confuse public anger with hatred. Nigerians are not angry because they hate him. Nigerians are angry because they are hungry, afraid, tired, and abandoned. Nigerians are angry because insecurity and economic hardship have become twin burdens choking the nation.
You promised relief. Many believed you. Many hoped that your political experience would bring order. Many thought your government would move faster, act smarter, and confront the networks behind kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, and economic suffering. But three years into a four-year first tenure, Nigerians are still asking the same painful questions.
Who is safe?
Which road is safe?
Which village is safe?
Which school is safe?
Which farm is safe?
Which border is secured?
Which criminal sponsor has been exposed?
Which kidnapped victim can trust that help will come in time?
Leadership cannot continue to answer these questions with speeches.
Stop Preparing for the Next Election While Nigerians Are Being Buried
It is deeply troubling when insecurity becomes part of election language. When citizens are being killed and abducted, the President’s first concern should not be who is trying to remove him from office. His first concern should be who is removing Nigerians from their homes, farms, schools, roads, and communities.
Mr. President, 2027 should not be your loudest priority right now. Security should be.
The blood of Nigerians must not become campaign material. The fear of citizens must not become a political talking point. The pain of rural communities must not be reduced to opposition strategy.
If politicians are indeed exploiting insecurity, then defeat them with results. Secure the country. Rescue the abducted. Arrest the kidnappers. Prosecute sponsors. Close the border routes. Deploy surveillance drones.
Train community protectors. Fund intelligence systems. Reform policing. Strengthen local security. Protect farmers. Restore roads. Secure schools.
That is how a President silences political exploitation—not by complaining that enemies are using insecurity against him.
Nigeria Needs a National Community Safety Corps
There is one urgent policy option the President should pursue immediately: a federally supported National Community Safety Corps that turns unemployed Nigerian youth into trained, disciplined, lawfully supervised protectors of their communities.
Nigeria has millions of unemployed and underemployed youth. Many are frustrated. Many are idle. Many are vulnerable to recruitment by criminal networks. Many want purpose but have no pathway. Instead of allowing idle hands to become tools for crime, government can transform them into instruments of national protection.
The President should sponsor bills immediately to create structured public service and community safety jobs across the country. This should not be political thuggery. This should not be another patronage program. This must be a disciplined, transparent, nationally regulated service model.
The program should include:
A National Community Safety Corps under federal law but implemented with state and local coordination.
Recruitment of unemployed youth from their own communities after background checks, character verification, and biometric registration.
Training in intelligence gathering, emergency response, basic security support, first aid, communication, conflict de-escalation, human rights, and lawful engagement.
Deployment under the supervision of the Nigeria Police Force, Civil Defence, military task forces, and recognized local authorities.
Monthly stipends, health coverage, insurance, and career pathways into formal law enforcement, emergency management, forestry protection, border monitoring, and civil service.
Strict prohibition against political use, ethnic militias, religious militias, or private armed groups.
Technology support, including mobile reporting tools, drones, GPS mapping, and emergency alert systems.
Community accountability boards involving traditional rulers, religious leaders, women’s groups, youth representatives, and security agencies.
This approach would do two things at once. It would reduce youth unemployment and strengthen local security. It would give young Nigerians work, dignity, discipline, income, and national purpose. It would also increase the eyes and ears of security agencies in forests, border communities, highways, rural roads, farms, and vulnerable settlements.
Nigeria cannot fight community-based insecurity without community-based intelligence.
The Poor Are Watching, the Youth Are Watching, the Diaspora Is Watching
Mr. President, there is another warning you must not ignore. Nigerians abroad are facing increasing pressure in many countries. Across parts of the world, African migrants are experiencing deportations, voluntary repatriations, hostile immigration environments, xenophobic violence, and shrinking opportunities.
South Africa has seen renewed anti-immigrant tensions. Ghanaian citizens have recently been repatriated from South Africa, while Nigeria has also considered repatriation options for its citizens. In other places, Nigerians and other Africans continue to face immigration crackdowns, suspicion, discrimination, and uncertain legal status.
Whether through deportation, repatriation, visa pressure, or hostile foreign environments, the message is becoming clear: many Nigerians may soon have fewer escape routes.
For years, Nigerian leaders have governed as if citizens can always run away. If Nigeria becomes unbearable, people leave. If jobs disappear, they travel. If insecurity worsens, they relocate. If hospitals fail, they go abroad. If schools collapse, they send children elsewhere. If businesses die, they move capital out.
But what happens when foreign doors begin to close?
What happens when Nigerians abroad are forced back home?
What happens when citizens who have experienced organized systems return to confront a broken one?
What happens when the children of the poor, the unemployed, the abandoned, and the displaced finally decide that enough is enough?
Chief Obafemi Awolowo warned long ago that the children of the poor you refuse to train will not allow your children to live in peace. That warning is no longer a proverb. It is becoming a national reality.
Nigeria has refused to train too many children. Nigeria has refused to employ too many youth. Nigeria has refused to protect too many communities. Nigeria has refused to listen to too many cries. Nigeria has allowed corruption to eat too deeply while citizens suffer too loudly.
A country cannot continue like this forever.
A New Warning for Today
Let this be my own warning to President Tinubu and every Nigerian leader who still thinks power can survive without justice:
“The citizens you refuse to protect today will one day withdraw the silence that keeps your power comfortable.” — Dr. Nana Akaeze
This is not a call for violence. It is a call for wisdom. It is a call for leadership to wake up before pain becomes rebellion, before hunger becomes rage, before insecurity becomes national collapse, and before citizens at home and abroad turn their disappointment into unstoppable political resistance.
Nigerians have tolerated too much for too long. They have tolerated corruption. They have tolerated bad roads. They have tolerated poor hospitals. They have tolerated failing schools. They have tolerated fuel scarcity. They have tolerated inflation. They have tolerated broken promises. They have tolerated leaders who live comfortably while citizens suffer daily.
But when people can no longer sleep safely, eat properly, travel freely, farm peacefully, or return home from abroad with dignity, tolerance begins to die.
Mr. President, Act Now
President Tinubu must stop explaining insecurity and start defeating it.
He must sponsor urgent legislation for a National Community Safety Corps.
He must deploy drone surveillance and intelligence technology across forests, highways, and border communities.
He must secure Nigeria’s porous borders and confront the Sahel-linked movement of arms and criminal networks.
He must strengthen state and community policing under constitutional safeguards.
He must create special courts for kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, illegal arms trafficking, and sponsorship of violent groups.
He must protect farmers before the farming season collapses further.
He must secure schools before more children become bargaining chips.
He must rebuild public trust before Nigerians conclude that government is either helpless, indifferent, or complicit.
Most importantly, he must stop treating criticism as hatred.
A President who promised to solve insecurity must not become angry when citizens demand security. A President who promised renewed hope must not be surprised when people reject renewed fear. A President who said he understood Nigeria’s problems must not now speak as if the problems are political traps laid by his enemies.
Mr. President, the office you occupy is not for complaint. It is for responsibility.
The time for excuses is over.
Nigeria needs protection.
Nigeria needs seriousness.
Nigeria needs courage.
Nigeria needs results.
And Nigerians need to live.
This is my voice. This is my belief.
References
Akogun, D., Salman, A., Abraham, J., & Omotayo, T. (2026, April 11). 49 villagers, 10 bandits killed in fresh attacks. Punch Newspapers.
Obahopo, B. (2026, June 2). One killed, over 30 people kidnapped in Kogi. Vanguard.
Vanguard. (2026, April 17). I took over from myself; Buhari was my partner – Tinubu.
TheCable. (2026, April 30). Tinubu: My enemies want to use insecurity to remove me from office.
Premium Times. (2026, April 30). My enemies want me out using insecurity, Tinubu says, vows second term bid.
Reuters. (2026, May 29). Nigeria’s Tinubu says reforms stabilising economy despite hardship.
Reuters. (2026, May 7). African countries warn citizens of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
Reuters. (2026, May 27). Ghanaians repatriated from South Africa after anti-immigrant protests.
Citation for The Awake Voice and Facebook Posts:
Akaeze, N. (2026, June 2). Mr. President, Stop Blaming Politics for the Blood of Nigerians. The Awake Voice.
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