Insecurity: ”Emilokan’ should step aside if the shoes are too big,’ Atiku throws jab at President Tinubu

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has urged President Bola Tinubu to step aside if the demands of his office are overwhelming to warrant underperformance. 

Atiku, who lost to Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, accused the President of playing fiddle while the country is drowning in insecurity.

“If the shoes are too big for Emilokan, he should step aside. Nigeria does not need another Tourist-in-Chief,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain added.  “The country needs 24/7 leadership to confront the pervasive insecurity and collapsing economy,” he said in a post on his X handle on Tuesday, recalling the various kidnapping episodes in several parts of Nigeria.

Tinubu is playing fiddle while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity. To imagine that the Commander-in-Chief is on a so-called private visit while kidnappers kill a nursing mother and grandmother in Abuja for failing to pay N90m ransom and two monarchs in Ekiti, among…

— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) January 30, 2024

“Tinubu is playing fiddle while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity,” Atiku wrote.

“To imagine that the Commander-in-Chief is on a so-called private visit while kidnappers kill a nursing mother and grandmother in Abuja for failing to pay N90m ransom and two monarchs in Ekiti, among other regular tragedies besetting Nigerians.”

President Tinubu came to office last year vowing to tackle Nigeria’s insecurity, including jihadists in the North-East, criminal militias in the North-West and a flareup of intercommunal violence in central states.

But critics say the kidnapping crisis, one of the issues affecting the country, is out of control. The president said he plans to address the root causes of the violence through education.

NewsClick Nigeria reports that Emilokan, a Yoruba word which means “it is my turn”, was made popular by President Tinubu during his campaign for the 2023 election.

The ideology behind the word as used then by Tinubu was that he had worked for President Muhammadu Buhari to become the first opposition leader to be elected Nigerian president, and therefore it was his (Tinubu’s) turn to be president after former President Muhammadu Buhari who has since handed over rein of power to Tinubu on May 29, 2023.