The senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, on Thursday urged President Bola Tinubu to communicate more directly with Nigerians rather than relying on spokespersons to convey his message.
He said the President had been absent from public communication for too long at a time when citizens desperately needed to hear from their leader.
Ndume disclosed this to State House correspondents after meeting Tinubu at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The lawmaker described Thursday’s tête-à-tête as his first encounter with the President in a while, saying he advised the President on the matter directly and that Tinubu promised to look into it.
“I told Mr President that he should reach out more. I also advised him, and he promised to look into it and speak directly to Nigerians.
“People expect their leader to tell them what is going on, instead of allowing others to speak on his behalf.
“It has been a while since he has spoken directly to Nigerians, and that is very important,” Ndume told journalists after the meeting.
The senator said the meeting, which he had sought and was granted, covered insecurity, economic hardship and the situation of his constituents in the Northeast.
He said the President was energised by the exchange, and he proposed that they hold similar consultations regularly in a more relaxed setting, away from the formal pressures of the office.
Ndume explained, “The President even insisted that we should do this regularly, not necessarily in the office where people are always rushing in and out, but in a more relaxed setting, perhaps at his residence, so we can think together about how to solve some of these problems.
“A country like Nigeria will have problems, and the President alone cannot solve them all. He needs people who can share ideas with him because, as the saying goes, two heads are better than one.”
The former Senate leader noted that the engagement with the President had been interrupted for some time before being revived.
“We used to have this interaction before, but somehow it stopped. Now the interaction has resumed,” he said, adding that the President was equally looking forward to the meeting.
On insecurity, which he described as Nigeria’s greatest concern, Ndume said the threat had metastasised well beyond its original epicentre in the Northeast and now required a national response.
According to him, “Insecurity is our greatest concern in the country right now. It used to be concentrated in the Northeast, but it has now spread to the South, North-Central, North-West, and even the South-West.
“We also have residual insecurity involving IPOB in the Southeast. Although the Southeast situation has improved and is not as bad as before, it is still an area that needs attention.
He noted that he was made to wait for his 3 p.m. appointment because the President was in a security meeting with service chiefs, branding the meeting as evidence of Tinubu’s hands-on approach to the matter.
“There has been a lot of pressure recently on bandits in the North-West, the Northeast and elsewhere. Some of their leaders have been taken out, and some of their commanders surrendered yesterday.
“If this momentum is sustained, we are confident that the problem will eventually end. These people are not fighters who can stand up to the military, even in large numbers.
“What has been lacking is commitment, but you can see that the President has already declared a state of emergency on security,” he said.
On economic hardship, Ndume said the issues of high fuel costs, rising food prices and transportation remained pressing, but expressed confidence in the government’s ability to address them with better coordination.
He argued, “We have the capacity to handle these problems. What is needed is coordination. Once that is done and Nigerians begin to see the government’s efforts, they will appreciate it.”
Asked about the decision by 19 northern governors to establish a security trust fund and the declaration by the defence minister that terrorists caught should be summarily killed, Ndume said he supported both positions.
“You don’t spare a bandit or a terrorist. Once you identify a terrorist, you should deal with him, because if you don’t kill him, he will kill you. So there is nothing to argue about there,” he said.
He equally commended the governors’ initiative, framing it as a welcome addition to the federal security architecture rather than a parallel structure.
Ndume argued, “You should not leave the responsibility only to the Federal Government.
“Now that they have agreed to contribute funds, those institutions should collaborate with the existing security framework.
“The more, the merrier. If you have more people on the ground pressing the fight, that is a good thing.”
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