Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has raised fresh concerns over the worsening state of insecurity across the country, declaring that Nigeria is “bleeding” and urgently in need of responsible leadership.
Obi, in a statement posted on his X account on Tuesday, condemned the wave of killings, kidnappings, and violent attacks recorded across several states within the last 48 hours, describing the situation as a national tragedy and a serious failure of leadership.
Titled “A Decaying Nation Crying for Leadership,” the former Anambra State governor said the recent bloodshed in Katsina, Adamawa, Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, and Kogi states reflects a dangerous collapse of the government’s primary duty to protect lives and property.
“What we have witnessed across our country in just the past 48 hours is not only tragic, it is utterly unacceptable and a damning indictment of our collective failure of leadership,” Obi wrote.
He cited the reported killing of 11 people in Katsina State, seven in Benue, and 23 in Adamawa in a single day, alongside the brutal murder of an entire family in Plateau State.
He also referenced the abduction of 24 children from an orphanage in Kogi State and 10 more children in Kaduna State, noting that one of the disturbing incidents involved children transporting their mother’s corpse for burial.
“Nigeria is bleeding. We are fast becoming a nation where human life is treated as expendable, where citizens live in fear, and where the basic duty of government, to protect lives and property, is repeatedly neglected,” he stated.
According to Obi, these incidents should not be dismissed as ordinary crime statistics but as painful evidence of a nation under severe distress.
“These are not mere statistics; they are our fellow Nigerians, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, whose lives have been brutally cut short or violently disrupted,” he said.
He warned that no nation can make meaningful progress under such persistent insecurity and called on leaders to urgently confront the crisis with competence, compassion, and coordination.
“This cannot continue. A nation cannot develop under the weight of such persistent insecurity and human tragedy. The normalisation of these horrors is itself a crisis,” he said.
Obi questioned the absence of decisive leadership and demanded urgent accountability from those in authority.
“We must ask, with all sense of urgency and responsibility: where is the leadership? Where is the coordination, the competence, and the compassion required to confront this menace decisively?” he asked.
He extended condolences to families who lost loved ones and prayed for the safe return of abducted children.
“My heart goes out to all the grieving families across these states. I pray for divine comfort for those who have lost loved ones and for the safe and immediate return of all abducted children,” he added.
Reiterating his long-standing political message, Obi said the current realities make national transformation no longer optional.
“A New Nigeria is not just a slogan; it has become an urgent necessity,” he declared.
