School Closures: Seek Help Or Resign, PDP Tells Tinubu

School Closures: Seek Help Or Resign, PDP Tells Tinubu

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday asked President Bola Tinubu to either seek help or resign, as Nigeria faces renewed attacks and kidnapping of school children across some states in the north.

Addressing a news conference in Abuja, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, noted that the recent abductions of students in Kebbi, Niger, and worshipers in Kwara States, expose the inability of the president Tinubu-led government to manage a worsening security crisis in the country.

The PDP spokesman insisted that the President has failed in his primary responsibility to protect the lives and properties of citizens.

“We again remind the President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the entire APC-led administration that the security of lives and property is the primary function of any government,” he stated.

“At any time, government is unwilling, unable, or incapable of executing this primary role, such a government, must either ask for help (locally or internationally) or honourably resign, if it is sincere and responsible.”

Ememobong also faulted the decision of some state governments as well as the Federal Government to order the closure of some schools, saying it amounts to surrounding to terrorists.

He said the PDP is alarmed that the Federal Government has still not offered a coordinated response despite multiple kidnappings in less than a week, describing the presidency’s approach as slow, unempathetic, and politically motivated.

The party’s spokesman criticised Tinubu for delegating the response to the Minister of State for Defence rather than visiting the affected communities himself.

“More troubling is the fact that when these unfortunate incidents happen, the administration’s response is usually lacklustre and unempathetic.

“Instead of the President visiting Kebbi and Niger States to meet and sympathise with the parents of the children who are in captivity, and to address the security personnel there, he merely directed the Minister of State for Defence to relocate to Kebbi,” he stated.

The party’s spokesperson argued that school closures would worsen the already dire education deficit in the North, where UNICEF reports that the majority of Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children live.