By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

IN fairness to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he is tired and degenerating. His cognitive skills are flagging even when you watch him from afar. He may incrementally be unable to realise he is President and the duties of his office.

Asked about the mounting insecurity in the country, he launched into an attack on lawlessness and that the sacrifice, the slaughtering of ram, represented more importance of human life to animals’.

He hardly understands his environment. Someone must be making the (in)decisions for him. People do not know that Tinubu is incapable of taking the decision they expect him to make.

Those who think he loves the Yoruba, his ethnic roots, more than other Nigerians are totally wrong. Forget the tilted appointments – they are for Tinubu’s benefit and his second term ambition.

When school children and their teachers were abducted from schools in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State, many expected Tinubu to jump into the fray to express his anger at such affront on his backyard.

Tinubu appears unaware that bandits have laid siege to Oyo State or anywhere for that matter. His lethargy is a growing manner that matches his decision to let bandits be. How would confronting bandits help his second term campaigns?

Nothing is of importance to Tinubu than winning the 2027 election. What is the life of Nigerians, hundreds, thousands of them even if millions, if that is what bandits want? How will fighting bandits win the election?

Why would Tinubu do anything about the attacks and abductions when any serious responses to them would also be admissions that he has failed woefully, almost irredeemably. Only his praise singers speak differently.

General Christopher Gwabin Musa (rtd), who until recently keenly engaged bandits in battle, talked tough against bandits, has scored Tinubu 70 per cent in terms of his performance in securing Nigeria. Nobody should forget that as the Minister of Defence, the only person Musa needs to defend is Tinubu. One day, Musa may tell us what part of security generates Tinubu’s exceptional performance of 70 per cent.

The fears that wrap round Tinubu are such that he cannot make a coherent condemnation of the Oyo kidnapping. He is afraid of offending the kidnappers. The negotiations for the release of the Oyo victims could be slower and tougher as manifested in the manoeuvres to remove Tinubu from any blames for the inability to protect Nigerians.

Who is engaging the bandits? Is it the National Security Adviser or the National Adviser on Homeland Security? Are they both supporters of the non-kinetic approach.

Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, alleged on national television that the recent abduction in Oyo State may have been orchestrated by the state government to blackmail President Bola Tinubu. Fayose said Governor Seyi Makinde should use his security vote to protect Oyo State instead of waiting for Tinubu to fly in from Abuja to secure Oyo State.

How would the abduction blackmail Tinubu? Why would Makinde blackmail Tinubu? Fayose knows the details of this abduction, makes a public revelation of a plot to blackmail Tinubu, Oyo State government organising abduction of innocent school children and he walks away from the television studio without the security agencies showing any interest in what Fayose said.

The attitude of the security agencies draws directly from Tinubu’s lack of care and concern about happens to the Oyo captives. Who are they? They are seen as incapable of affecting Tinubu’s chances in 2027.

Fayose and his pro-Tinubu groups are in a locked battle to strip Tinubu of the responsibilities of his office as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Their intention is to prove that Governors as Chief Security Officer of their States – a vacuous title – should be responsible for security of their States. Not Tinubu.

Tinubu, they claim, had transferred the responsibility to the Governors through increased allocations since 2023. It is their way of absolving Tinubu from blames in the matter.

Imagine defending Tinubu who has accepted his unmitigated policy disasters worsened by his messianic complex as the man who saved Nigeria from collapse, and lately the man who took a bullet for Nigeria. Tinubu is ashamed enough of his “achievements” that no member of the administration was willing to discuss them on national television.

As if that is inadequate, Pa Enoch Adeboye, 84, holder of a 1975 PhD in Applied Mathematics, former university teacher, General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of God, a man once respected for calling people to fear of the Almighty, and respect of the truth, has been silent once Tinubu is involved.

Eight years of Muhammadu Buhari was without a word from Pa Adeboye, except a prayer walk, not a protest, around his church headquarters in Ebute Metta, Lagos. Nigerians suffered, he preached prosperity. When in 2016, Mrs Eunice Olawale, 42, mother of seven, a member of his church was slaughtered on the street of Kubwa, Abuja by unknown people, for preaching the gospel, he reclined to silence, praying for the salvation of the killers. He did not want justice. Of course, he was too close to power to condemn the killing strongly or say anything that Buhari could consider offensive. His protégé, and his pastor, Yemi Osinbajo was Buhari’s Vice-President.

Pa Adeboye spoke on insecurity in November 2025 asking government to fire Service Chiefs every three months if they failed to perform. The video is being circulated afresh.

It should be noted that it was reposted on his X handle. Is Pa Adeboye stalling for Tinubu?

The video is a tacit support for the Commander-in-Chief. For Pa Adeboye the Service Chiefs, not Tinubu, is the problem.

We also know that Remi Tinubu is one of Pa Adeboye’s best pastors and the President’s wife. He hands and mouth are tied. He asks us to keep praying.

Vice President Kashim Shettima provided more support for Tinubu on insecurity.

“President Bola Tinubu is working day and night to ensure the safe recovery of all children in the hands of bandits and terrorists.

“I want to assure Nigerians of President Bola Tinubu’s unwavering commitment towards restoring peace and stability in the nation.

“No matter how long the night lasts, it must give way to the light of dawn. However stormy the weather may be, it will not rain forever. The government remains irrevocably committed to restoring peace and stability in the nation,” Shettima said on Friday at a special Jummat prayer at the National Mosque, to mark the 2026 Democracy Day.

The excessive support for Tinubu disgusts the public which sees no commitment in Tinubu to fight insecurity. Are Nigerians impressed by accounts of Tinubu’s long nights? Those whose relations are in captivity are having endless nightmares over their plight.

Does sending forest guards after armed bandits, who are killing their victims, any sign of seriousness? Tinubu works day and night and still has no viable plan to rescue the abducted.

Shettima should just return to enjoying his N22 billion official quarters. Tinubu is not losing sleep over insecurity. If he did, he would be emphatic in ending it.

If Tinubu is having sleepless nights, it is over his slipping control of events, and the scary realisation that he is not the almighty, that he Is still human, contrary to what he hears daily.

Finally…

.BANDIT attacks in Tureta and Sabon Birni Local Government Areas of Sokoto State, reportedly left more than 60 people dead and forced residents of over 17 communities to flee their homes.

.EZENWO Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has recanted his order that cattle should stop roaming Abuja streets. He said implementation of the order had national security implications. Only those who take Wike serious would not know that since his appointment in 2023, Wike regularly gives orders to stop cattle on Abuja streets. The orders are always observed in breach.

•ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues.

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