The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2027 election, Peter Obi, has alleged that Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde informed him that President Bola Tinubu had not contacted him more than 50 days after the abduction of schoolchildren in the state. Obi made the claim in a post shared on his X account on Monday, where he criticised the Federal Government’s handling of insecurity and described the situation as a reflection of what he called a worsening leadership crisis in the country.
According to the former Anambra State governor, he had publicly appealed twice to the kidnappers to release the abducted children and had also spoken with Governor Makinde on two occasions to express solidarity, insisting that the incident should be treated as a national tragedy rather than an issue affecting Oyo State alone.
“The government and people of Oyo State, more than 50 days after the abduction of the schoolchildren without any tangible effort toward their rescue, should rightly feel bitter and abandoned,” Obi wrote. He disclosed that on July 3, he visited Ibadan alongside economist Prof. Pat Utomi, where they met with Governor Makinde to discuss the security situation in the state and across the country.
Obi said he shared his experiences in tackling insecurity during his tenure as governor of Anambra State, recalling that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan regularly reached out to state governors whenever major security challenges occurred.
According to him, he was surprised when Makinde allegedly revealed that President Tinubu had not called him since the abduction of the schoolchildren. “But, to my utmost shock, I discovered that, contrary to my assumption that they had been in regular communication over the matter, Governor Seyi Makinde had not received a single call from President Bola Tinubu,” Obi stated.
The former governor compared the situation with the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction, noting that Tinubu had been among those who criticised then-President Goodluck Jonathan for not contacting the affected governor promptly.
Obi argued that the current administration had witnessed more than 13 school kidnapping incidents and questioned why the president had allegedly failed to communicate with the governor of the affected state more than seven weeks after the latest abduction.
Describing the development as “outrageous,” Obi said the lives of kidnapped children and other Nigerians in captivity should be treated as a top national priority. He further accused the Tinubu administration of failing in its responsibility to protect citizens, claiming that governance had collapsed under the current government.
Obi concluded by urging President Tinubu to either resign from office or refrain from seeking a second term, insisting that his position was driven by patriotism rather than politics. Neither the Presidency nor the Oyo State Government had responded to Obi’s claims as of the time of filing this report.