Nigeria’s African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised President Bola Tinubu for attending the Argungu Fishing Festival in Kebbi state, describing the trip as tone-deaf at a time of escalating insecurity and mass abductions across parts of the country.
The party said the president’s appearance at the internationally recognised festival – which is listed by Unesco and had not been held for six years due to insecurity and funding shortages – sent the wrong message to a nation grappling with violence and fear.
Tinubu made a one-day visit to Kebbi on Saturday, where he inaugurated projects and attended the revived Argungu Fishing Festival. Speaking at the ceremony, the president said recent progress against insecurity in Kebbi and other parts of Nigeria was the result of sustained investment in security.
But the ADC, in a statement issued on Sunday by its national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, accused Tinubu of choosing celebration over urgency, warning that terrorists were gradually consolidating control over parts of Kwara state.
“The African Democratic Congress is deeply troubled by the continued deterioration of the security situation in parts of the country, particularly in Kwara state,” Abdullahi said.
“We are especially concerned that at a time of rising insecurity, the president and commander-in-chief was in Argungu attending a fishing festival, even as credible reports indicate that nearly 1,300 Nigerians have been killed in the last 41 days.”
The party claimed that within the same period, hundreds of Nigerians – including nursing mothers and children – remained in captivity, while killings and abductions continued to spread.
“Once again, innocent Nigerians and their families are left to bear the tragic brunt of terror while the president attends a festival,” the statement said.
The ADC said it was also disturbed by the emergence of a video allegedly released by terrorists linked to recent abductions in Kaiama local government area, suggesting official figures on the number of kidnapped victims may be inaccurate.
“This development comes amid fresh reports of terrorist activity in Patigi local government area of the same state as recently as last night,” it said.
The party argued that the southern part of Kwara had been under sustained pressure since last year, but that attacks were now spreading northward, raising fears that the state could become a strategic safe haven for terror groups.
“It is therefore shocking that the president could choose to attend a fishing festival while terrorists threaten to expand their operations,” the ADC said.
The party described the Kaiama axis as strategically significant, warning that its link to Oyo state could expose wider vulnerabilities across the North Central and South West if insurgent activity becomes entrenched.
“The situation in Kwara state must not be treated as an isolated incident but as a potential early warning of geographic expansion by terror actors,” it said.
The ADC also warned that the public contradiction of official figures by non-state actors pointed to an erosion of deterrence and a troubling shift in the propaganda battle.
“This could only mean one thing: the terrorists now view kidnapping as a commercial enterprise, and they are determined not to be short-changed in the ransom negotiations they expect will follow,” the statement said.
The party reiterated its longstanding opposition to ransom payments, arguing that paying kidnappers – directly or indirectly – only deepens the criminal economy sustaining mass abductions.
“While the safe return of victims remains paramount, disguising ransom payments as rescue operations only creates perverse incentives for future attacks,” it added.
The ADC called on the federal government to immediately mount a coordinated rescue operation for abducted victims and to order an urgent security audit of the Kaiama and Kainji Lake forest corridor, which it said was increasingly being exploited by armed groups.
Among the measures demanded were strengthened interstate security coordination across Kwara, Niger and Oyo states, a transparent public briefing to resolve discrepancies in reported victim numbers, and regular official communication to counter terrorist propaganda.
The party said it would continue to hold the federal government accountable, while supporting any genuine efforts to reclaim “every inch of the nation’s territory”, insisting Nigeria must not project weakness in the face of terror.
