Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a blistering critique of the Federal Government, arguing that the return of abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi State should not be celebrated as a victory but viewed as a troubling signal of Nigeria’s deteriorating security climate.
He accused the administration of trying to package a national embarrassment as progress, warning that the circumstances surrounding the girls’ release expose how deeply armed groups have entrenched themselves across the country.
Atiku insisted that the situation “shows a nation where outlaws now dictate the pace while authorities scramble for explanations.”
The former vice president’s remarks were issued on Wednesday in response to comments made earlier by Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Onanuga, in an interview on Arise News TV, had praised the Department of State Services and the military for tracking the abductors and establishing direct communication that eventually led to the girls’ freedom.
However, Atiku challenged the rationale behind presenting such engagement as a security feat. He argued that if operatives truly monitored the kidnappers in real time, then allowing them to retreat unchallenged raises urgent, troubling questions about state capacity.
“A government that can locate terrorists but refuses to apprehend them is not engaged in security work; it is performing damage control,” he said.
Onanuga had earlier explained that security forces often face operational restraints because of the risk of harming civilians held by the kidnappers.
According to him, “security agencies cannot simply storm the hideouts because innocent people live around those areas,” adding that the safety of captives remains the priority.
Atiku dismissed that explanation as insincere, insisting that the government’s narrative suggests a tacit acceptance of terrorist dominance.
“You cannot claim surveillance superiority while boasting about phone calls to criminals,” he said.
“When terrorists negotiate freely and walk back into the forests untouched, it means they consider themselves untouchable, and the government has done nothing to change that.”
The former vice president described the government’s posture as “a tragic lowering of national standards,” stressing that “no serious country applauds itself for engaging criminals it claims already lie within its radar.”
However, the debate over the government’s handling of the case has now widened beyond celebration or criticism.
Furthermore, it touches on the core question of whether Nigeria’s security strategy is genuinely disrupting terrorist networks or merely managing recurring tragedies.