The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of presiding over a dangerous decline in state authority, warning that Nigeria is “sliding into state failure” as banditry escalates in several regions.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party condemned reports that armed gangs in Zamfara State extorted over ₦56 million from farmers as a precondition to access their farmlands, and that an entire community in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State has been abandoned due to relentless bandit attacks.
“This is not just insecurity,” Abdullahi said. “When criminals can tax citizens at gunpoint, the state has surrendered its monopoly of force. What happened in Zamfara and Kwara is a national surrender.”
The ADC recalled that President Tinubu, as opposition leader in 2014, had called on then-President Goodluck Jonathan to resign over the Boko Haram insurgency, questioning why any part of Nigeria should be under occupation.
“Although the security situation Tinubu used to campaign has worsened under his watch, no one is asking him to resign. We are only asking him to do his job,” the statement read.
The party also questioned why the President moved to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State but has not responded with equal urgency to “industrial-scale kidnapping” and the imposition of a “bandit tax” in Zamfara.
“If the Tinubu administration cannot keep farms safe or prevent people from abandoning their homes, then it has failed in its most basic responsibility,” the ADC warned. “You cannot claim to be in charge of your country while citizens negotiate their survival with criminals.”