It's absurd for a government that CANNOT protect its citizens against bandits to demand for a seat at UN Security Council where global security is expect to be taken seriously - ADC

Monday, September 29, 2025 - The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that it’s absurd to seek a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, as bandits ravaged the country, killing Nigerians at will while the government appears either unperturbed or incapable of securing the lives of its citizens.

The party said that Nigeria cannot ask for expanded global responsibilities while persistently failing to meet its most fundamental obligation of protecting lives and property at home.

ADC, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, queried President Tinubu’s absence at the passing-out parade and Presidential Commissioning of officers of the Nigerian Army at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna on Saturday.

ADC recalled that, just like in 2024, the Commander-in-Chief misplaced his priorities, as he was once again missing in action, while 874 officers were commissioned into the nation’s military, preferring instead to attend the commissioning of the renovated National Arts Theater in Lagos.

“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) finds it absurd that the Tinubu administration could be requesting a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council even as bandits slaughter Nigerians at home and take control of some of the nation’s territories. We, however, wonder how a government that cannot ensure peace or security at home could demand a seat at the table where global security is negotiated and expect to be taken seriously.

“Only last Friday, gunmen, yet again, attacked a mosque in Yandoto village, Zamfara State, and massacred worshippers while abducting several others. Only a few weeks ago, in the same Zamfara State, no fewer than 45 Nigerians were killed, with entire villages sacked and dozens abducted.

“This was after a similar attack in Katsina State had left about 47 dead and several more injured or taken hostage. In just two months, more than 140 Nigerians have been murdered in Katsina and Zamfara alone. As of May 2025, Amnesty International reported over 10,000 lives lost in Nigeria to attacks by various armed groups. These are not numbers, they were human beings, they were Nigerians that this administration had promised renewed hope.

“Only last month, the ADC alerted the public that armed gangs in Zamfara State had extorted over N56 million from farmers as a precondition to access their farmlands. Indeed, with the level of brigandage going on in that state, we are compelled to ask whether Zamfara is still part of Nigeria. Because when non-state actors collect taxes, control access to farms, and kill with impunity, they are no longer mere criminals, they are a parallel government,” the party said.

ADC said that the issue at hand is therefore no longer about insecurity alone, it is about the territorial integrity of Nigeria being willfully subverted under President Bola Tinubu, adding, “what is happening is not a mere failure of security. It is clear evidence, written in blood and piles of innocent bodies, of a government that has lost control.”

The party said that in any serious country, these situations would have triggered resignations, emergency meetings, and a strategic overhaul, stressing, “here, it only receives routine condolence tweets from presidential propagandists.

“This is why we find it patently absurd that the same administration, under whose watch Nigerians are being massacred without let or hindrance, and under whose watch sundry bandits have taken control of parts of the nation’s territory, could stand before the world and ask to be admitted to the highest level of security conversations in the world.”

The party said the rest of the world can see beyond the fine speeches in New York, that they see that parts of the country have turned into killing fields, they see that in the country, lives could be brutish, nasty, and short.

“Nigeria’s request for a Security Council seat would indeed remain laughable until our government demonstrates both the capacity and the willingness to secure the lives of her own people. Leadership on the global stage must begin with responsibility at home.

“You cannot be asking to be admitted into the club of those who take the lives of their citizens seriously, while the very land you govern is soaked with the blood of the very people you have sworn to protect while you do nothing,” the party said.

The ADC also condemned President Tinubu for being absent from the commissioning of officers into the Nigerian military for the second year running, noting that the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) held the passing-out parade and commissioning of 874 officers into the military last Saturday, but the Commander-in-Chief was once again missing in action.

“With the dire security situation in the country, we would have expected the President to seize the occasion to inspire and charge the new officers to give their best in protecting the country and its people. We would have expected the President to seize the opportunity of being in Kaduna, at the apex military training institution in the country, to reassure the people of northern Nigeria of his commitment to protect them and their children, to give hope to Zamfara and Katsina, as well as other northern states under siege. But no, instead, the Commander-in-Chief chose to travel to his beloved Lagos to commission the renovation of the National Arts Theater.

“What all this signals is that this administration is plagued by misplaced priorities. The President has become a passive spectator, watching from a safe distance, while villages burn and prayers end in gunfire. With its tragic indifference, this administration could indeed end up creating the dangerous perception that some lives in Nigeria matter less than others.

“A President that was quick to declare a state of emergency over a political crisis in Rivers but has nothing to say about the existential crisis in Zamfara and Katsina cannot claim to believe that all lives matter,” the party said.

The ADC has again demanded the immediate declaration of a state of emergency on the security situation in Zamfara State, adding, “It is time that the siege on that state was lifted and the tide of bloodletting ceased.”