“For the Federal Government to tell Nigerians that peace is being attained while Katsina communities are still burying their dead is not just ridiculous — it is an insult to every soul lost to bandits.”
That was the damning verdict of Senator Ahmed Babba Kaita, as the former Katsina North lawmaker and 2027 African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate ripped into the Bola Tinubu-led administration over what he called its “criminal failure” to secure lives in the Northwest.
Speaking in a fiery interview with JBC, Kaita said the APC government has lost the moral right to speak about peace, accusing it of presiding over a security collapse that has turned his home state into a graveyard.
Kaita said Abuja’s assurances of improving security ring hollow in villages where gunmen still operate with impunity.
“You can’t tell a man whose wife was kidnapped yesterday that peace has returned. You can’t tell mothers who dug seven fresh graves in Matazu that we’re winning the war. It’s an insult,” he said.
He accused the Federal Government of a “funeral-response strategy” — deploying troops only after communities have been decimated.
He referenced the abduction and killing of retired Defence Spokesman Maj. Gen. Rabe Abubakar in Matazu LGA, Katsina.
“After the General was killed, government sent more troops to rescue his wife. But while those troops were there, bandits returned, killed seven more people, and left. So who exactly are we protecting — the living or the dead?” Kaita asked.
The senator said the Federal Government’s negligence was exposed by its delayed approval of civilian guards in Katsina. According to him, the North had bled for years without meaningful intervention.
“Children were kidnapped. Farmers slaughtered. Villages burnt. But Abuja only approved civilian guards for Katsina after bandits struck Oyo State and kidnapped school children,” he said. “So northern blood wasn’t enough to wake them up? It took the South to get government sympathy?” He queried.
He accused both the Federal Government and Katsina State of “hiding behind the opposition” instead of taking responsibility. “Every time they’re questioned, they blame opposition parties. Did we give AK-47s to bandits? Did we ask them to invade Matazu?”
With confidence in state protection eroded, Kaita said he now backs calls for self-defense. “When the government that swore to protect you cannot, you have a duty to protect yourself. I support communities arming themselves. We cannot continue to die like chickens.”
He said the ADC would offer Nigerians a real alternative in 2027. “We won’t govern by propaganda. We won’t count corpses and call it progress. We will secure our people, or we will step aside.”
Kaita condoled with families of victims across the country but warned that “prayers without accountability brought us here. Nigerians must demand answers, not soundbites.”
