Tinubu Govt Lacks Political Will To Fight Terrorism– Ex-minister Dalung

Former Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has taken a swipe at President Bola Tinubu, accusing the federal government of lacking the political will to tackle the worsening insecurity across the country.

This was just as he claimed that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was more preoccupied with the 2027 general elections than with the lives of Nigerians being lost daily to terrorist attacks and abductions.

Dalung, who served under the late President Muhammadu Buhari in the All Progressives Congress, made the accusation Friday on Arise Television’s Morning Show, where he belittled Tinubu administration’s three-year record on security, the economy, and political leadership.

“Government seems not to have the political will to deal with it. They have all the gadgets to track anybody who criticises the government — they can pick him up in the next five minutes. But they don’t have equipment to track terrorists who display huge phones in the forest, behead teachers, abduct schoolchildren, torture them in the forest, produce videos and send,” he said.

Dalung described the Minister of Information’s recent call on Nigerians to unite against terrorism as “uncalled for,” “an embarrassment,” and “demoralising,” arguing that the statement amounted to a confession of state failure rather than a rallying cry.

“I think it’s a statement confirming that the federal government has completely and woefully failed. They don’t seem to have any idea of a solution to the ravaging insecurity that is across the country,” he said.

The former minister identified two fundamental gaps in the government’s approach: the absence of political will and a lack of coordinated strategy among security agencies.

He said the intelligence community, the military, and other agencies operate in silos, with each “scrambling for relevance to access the president” rather than sharing information and pursuing a unified front against insurgents.

He warned that terrorists were now operating what amounted to a parallel forest economy, sustaining themselves independently of the Nigerian state, and questioned what impact American military assistance — whose presence in the country has been publicly acknowledged — had actually made.

“We were told that the Americans are here with us. If the Americans are here with us, what have they been doing? We have not felt their impact,” Dalung said, calling on the government to stop issuing reassurances and instead empower communities to take responsibility for their own security.

On the road to 2027, Dalung expressed deep disillusionment with the political class, saying the country had reverted to the regional politics of the First Republic, with virtually every geopolitical zone now fielding a presidential candidate.

“Nigeria has returned to the politics of the first republic, where regions now have their political parties. Almost all the zones have presidential candidates. So ultimately, in 2027, we may be facing serious confusion as we advance towards election,” he said, adding that the north-central zone would once again become the decisive battleground for votes.

He also assessed President Tinubu’s three-year record as one of missed expectations, saying the “Lagos magician” had delivered little beyond rhetoric on reforms whose benefits had yet to reach ordinary Nigerians.

“Three years into his tenure, it is just blame game and rhetorics of reforms — reforms that no single iota of the benefit has trickled down. Rather, Nigerians are getting impoverished daily. The economy is in doldrums. Insecurity remains rhetorical,” he said.