Why go with Defence Minister? — Okonkwo faults Tinubu’s UK visit amid insecurity

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Kenneth Okonkwo, has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s decision to proceed with a state visit to the United Kingdom in the wake of deadly terrorist bombings in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Okonkwo described the trip as an act of disrespect to the victims and soldiers killed in the attacks.

The opposition chieftain made the remarks during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, accusing the president of dancing on the graves of fallen Nigerians by embarking on the London visit despite the coordinated suicide bombings that tore through a busy market and other areas of Maiduguri on Monday, killing at least 23 people and leaving over 100 others injured.

“It’s about telling the world that you prefer to respect the blood of your martyrs to riding on their blood and dancing on their graves in the United Kingdom. That red carpet there is the blood of the martyrs that Tinubu is treading upon. He should have cancelled it, cancelled it without equivocation,” Okonkwo said.

The ADC chieftain argued that cancelling the trip would have sent a powerful message to both Nigerians and the international community about the president’s regard for the lives of his citizens and the sacrifices of the country’s military.

Okonkwo also questioned why the Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, accompanied Tinubu to London while Vice President Kashim Shettima was simultaneously attending the inauguration of Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo.

“Why go with your minister of defence? Why would the vice president be celebrating in Anambra State? I can’t believe it, I feel embarrassed. You don’t understand that the death of one military man is a hit to a nation because their morale is boosted when you at least recognise. As they are going to fight, it can be any of them, so they derive their morale from how you treat the one that has fallen,” he said.

Going further, Okonkwo accused the Tinubu administration of politicising security and expressed doubt about the president’s capacity to resolve the country’s deepening insecurity crisis.

“Tinubu is incapable of solving the security problems and that is why it is metastasising all over the nation. You don’t have enough boots on the ground, you have a lot of ungoverned spaces, hunger and hardship is increasing, suffering of people is increasing, they are easy to be recruited, criminality is not being punished,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s service chiefs have arrived in Maiduguri following a directive by President Tinubu to relocate to the state and address the security situation. 

In response to the presidential order, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Waidi Shaibu, have arrived in the Borno State capital.

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