The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has advised President Bola Tinubu not give the impression that the rescue of kidnap victims depends on where the victim comes from or whether the tragedy attracts national headlines.
ADC in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, noted that some kidnap victims receive swift presidential attention, while others are left to languish in silence.
The party reminded the president that victims of Woro kidnap in Kwara State have spent 170 days in kidnappers den, adding that their loved ones are asking what government has done to facilitate their rescue.
“Leadership demands equal compassion for every citizen, because no country can build national unity on the basis of selective empathy and selective attention,” ADC stated.
Apart from the Woro victims, the party stated that about 40 residents from 11 communities in Mayanchi District, Maru Local Government Area in Zamfara State, were recently abducted by bandits, most of them women and children.
ADC said insecurity is becoming daily occurrence in Nigeria, noting that fresh attacks in Benue and Borno States, noting that the abduction of Justice Faruku Hassan Bunza of Kebbi State High Court from his residence on Sunday, July 26.
“These are not isolated incidents. They are reminders that insecurity remains a daily reality for millions of Nigerians,” the party said.
ADC stated that the rescue of Oriire Kidnap victims of Oyo State made Nigerians to demand the progress government made in the rescue of the 176 abductees from Kaiama in Kwara State, as well as the release of Justice Bunza, and that of Borno State.
“The President owes Nigerians more than broad assurances. He owes them regular updates, timelines and evidence that no Nigerian community has been abandoned,” the party said.
It recalled that President Tinubu, last Thursday assured Nigerians that insecurity in the North would soon come to an end, and expressed the hope that the promise becomes reality.
“But hope cannot survive indefinitely on declarations alone,” ADC said, adding that “repeated assurances, unaccompanied by visible results, cease to reassure.
“They simply become another headline in a long cycle of official optimism and public disappointment.”
The party stated that many Nigerians no longer receive presidential statements on insecurity with the confidence they once did, because “the administration has become remarkably consistent in making reassuring pronouncements but far less convincing in delivering outcomes.”
ADC called on President Tinubu to demonstrate, through action rather than rhetoric, that every Nigerian life carries equal value.
