The Labour Party (LP), under the Interim National Working Committee led by Senator Nenadi Usman, has called on President Bola Tinubu to either rise to the constitutional responsibility of safeguarding Nigerians or resign from office.
The opposition party accused Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of grossly neglecting the primary duty of government despite committing over ₦6.5 trillion and several billions of U.S. dollars to defence expenditure in the past decade.
Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Tony Akeni, issued the statement in Abuja on Thursday.
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According to him, the prevailing security challenges are the cumulative failures of both the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), stressing that neither party could claim innocence.
Akeni said: “The principal function of government is the security of lives and property. If President Tinubu cannot deliver this, he should sack Nuhu Ribadu, reconfigure the armed services, step up his security governance, or do Nigerians a patriotic favour by sacking himself.”
He recalled that between 2006 and 2021 alone, Nigeria lost 50,252 citizens in 2,288 terrorist attacks, while another 51,425 people were killed through kidnappings, robberies, rapes, police brutality, extra-judicial killings, and related crimes. He noted that this amounted to 101,677 violent deaths within the period, averaging 57 lives lost daily.
Rising Defence Budgets, Escalating Insecurity
The LP spokesperson described as paradoxical the rising allocation to defence alongside worsening insecurity.
“Between 2016 and 2022, the APC-led government under Muhammadu Buhari spent $9.9 billion on security. The defence budget rose from $2.4 billion in 2020 to $4.5 billion. In 2025, Tinubu raised it to a historic ₦6.57 trillion.
“In the same period, the Nigeria Police budget climbed from ₦783 billion in 2022 to ₦969.6 billion in 2024. Yet killings and abductions continue unabated, as demonstrated in Tuesday’s mosque massacre in Katsina and similar tragedies in Plateau, Benue, and other parts of the North,” Akeni stated.
APC Accused Of Paying Lip Service To Security
The party alleged that successive PDP and APC administrations diverted defence allocations into private pockets, citing the growing number of estates, plazas, and luxury assets owned by public officials in Nigeria and overseas.
“The death toll in Nigeria today rivals or exceeds that of countries in full-blown war,” the spokesperson added.
The LP extended condolences to families affected by the Katsina mosque massacre and the mass abduction in Malumfashi Local Government Area, where 30 worshippers were shot dead during morning prayers and more than 20 others burnt alive in their homes.
The party also sympathised with the Acting Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Faruk Lawal Jobe, describing the killings as “another tragic reminder of the government’s failure to protect its citizens.”
