A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for going ahead with his planned state visit to the United Kingdom despite the terrorist attacks in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Okonkwo accused President Tinubu of dancing on the graves of Nigerians and soldiers killed in terror attacks by making the trip to London.
According to the lawyer, by cancelling the trip, Tinubu would have passed a message to the world that he respected the victims of the terror attack.
“It’s about telling the world that you prefer to respect the blood of your martyrs to riding on their blood and dancing on their graves in the United Kingdom.
“That red carpet there is the blood of the martyrs that Tinubu is treading upon. He should have cancelled it (UK Visit), cancelled it without equivocation,” Okonkwo said.
While Tinubu made the trip to the UK on Tuesday alongside the Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, Vice President Kashim Shettima was in Anambra State to attend the second-term swearing-in ceremony of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, a situation Okonkwo said was embarrassing.
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“Why go with your minister of defence? Why would the vice president be celebrating in Anambra State? I can’t believe it, I feel embarrassed. You don’t understand that the death of one military man is a hit to a nation because their morale is boosted when you at least recognise.
“As they are going to fight, it can be any of them, so they derive their morale from how you treat the one that has fallen,” he said.
The ADC chieftain also accused the Tinubu-led administration of being corrupt, saying that it politicises everything, including security.
He maintained that Tinubu was not capable of solving the security problems bedevilling the country.
“I was in your station the early days of Tinubu, and I told you that state police will not come, that Tinubu will continue to play the politics of it, and I tell you that Tinubu is incapable of solving the security problems and that is why it is metastasising all over the nation.
“So he is incapable, why? You don’t have enough boots on the ground, you have a lot of ungoverned spaces, hunger and hardship is increasing, suffering of people is increasing, they are easy to be recruited, criminality is not being punished,” Okonkwo added.
The coordinated blasts by suspected suicide bombers on Monday tore through a busy market and other areas, killing about 23 people and leaving over 100 injured.
Tinubu’s UK Visit
President Tinubu, who arrived in the UK on Tuesday, was on Wednesday given a ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle as the Nigerian leader began his state visit to the United Kingdom.
The president and his wife, Remi Tinubu, were given a 42-gun salute by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
Before that, Prince William and Princess Catherine met and greeted the Nigerian leader and his wife at the Fairmont Hotel before the short ride to Windsor Castle, where King Charles III hosted them.
There was also an exchange of gifts and a display of items related to Nigeria that are kept in the Royal Collection.
Afterwards, there was a banquet where Tinubu and King Charles gave speeches.
Leaders and celebrities attended the event.
The President and his wife are expected to lay a wreath of flowers on the tomb of the late Queen Elizabeth II in St George’s Chapel.
They will also meet with organisations engaged in interfaith dialogue.
Service Chiefs Relocate To Borno
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s service chiefs are in Borno State following the bombings in Maiduguri, which left at least 23 people dead and over a hundred people injured.
This follows President Tinubu’s directive to them to relocate to the state to deal with the situation.
About a day after the order, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Waidi Shaibu, arrived in Maiduguri, the Borno capital.
The service chiefs, who landed at the Air Force Base in Maiduguri, were received by the Theatre Commander and moved straight to the headquarters of the Joint Task Force Operation Hadin Kai.
The Chief of Defence Staff later inspected the quarter guard mounted in his honour.
They are expected to meet frontline troops, government officials, and other stakeholders to discuss solutions to the resurgence of attacks in the region by Boko Haram insurgents.
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