Nigeria: Tinubu Scorecard Soaked in Blood Pledges Support for Soldiers' Salaries - Atiku

What the report says

Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate and Nigeria’s former vice president, criticized President Bola Tinubu’s administration over rising insecurity, citing a reported 5,091 killings across the country within three months. In a statement released through his senior special assistant on public communication, Phrank Shaibu, and reported by This Day in Abuja, Atiku said the death toll showed a severe failure to protect lives and property.

He argued that the violence, which he linked to terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other crimes, was not just a set of figures but evidence of the human cost of weak governance. Atiku also tied the security crisis to what he described as wasteful spending and poor execution of budgeted funds, especially for defence and security. Those claims were presented as his political criticism; the article did not provide an independent review of the budget issues he raised.

Atiku nonetheless welcomed the federal government’s decision to raise soldiers’ salaries, saying better pay could help support troops on the front lines. He added that compensation alone would not solve morale problems without better equipment, funding, allowances and family welfare. The remarks matter because they add to ongoing opposition pressure on the Tinubu government over insecurity and the broader debate about how Nigeria funds and equips its security forces.