Return Home, 150 Nigerians are Dead Already – Peter Obi Tells Tinubu

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has urged President Bola Tinubu to cut short his two-week foreign trip and return to address what he described as an escalating security crisis across the country.

Obi, in a statement shared via his social media handles, called out Tinubu for his absence while violent attacks, killings, and rising insecurity continue to claim lives across Nigeria.

The former Anambra State governor said, “Mr. President, domestic problems beacon.”

Obi added, “I am compelled at this time in our lives as a nation to call on our retreating President’s attention to the security challenges at home, which entails that he immediately suspend his ongoing retreat in a foreign land and come home to address the overwhelming security situation across the country.”

President Tinubu departed for Paris, France on April 2 for what was described by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, as a two-week working visit. According to Onanuga, the trip was intended to allow the president “appraise his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones.”

However, Obi questioned the timing and purpose of the trip, especially as the country reels from insecurity and unrest in multiple regions.

“In the 2 weeks you have been away, over 150 Nigerians have lost their lives to insecurity across Nigeria, especially in Plateau and Zamfara states,” Obi said.

“The repeated pipeline explosions in the Niger Delta further reflect a nation in distress. In the North East, Borno state leaders are bemoaning the return of insurgency with troops and civilians being killed randomly. In the South East, the story is the same: killings and abduction.”

Obi criticized Tinubu’s absence, likening it to the CEO of a distressed company abandoning its headquarters during a crisis.

“Amid all these, the CEO of the troubling company called Nigeria is retreating [to a] far away land in France from the company’s headquarters,” he remarked.

He further questioned the logic of holding a governance “retreat” in a foreign country, noting that “the primary duty of any government is securing the lives and property of its citizens, and one wonders the type of retreat going on in another country where peace has been secured by their leaders, while blood continues to flow in our country.”

“I, therefore, like to urge Mr. President to quickly suspend whatever he is doing in France and rush home to take responsibility by addressing these disturbing issues. That is the new Nigeria that the nation seeks. A New Nigeria is POssible,” he added.