Presidential aide Bayo Onanuga has accused parts of the Nigerian media of giving the impression that insecurity has taken over the entire country, saying the situation, though serious, does not mean Nigeria is under siege.
Speaking on Arise Television on Tuesday, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy said media reports often make it seem as though insecurity affects every part of the country.
“The problem is that the media in Nigeria, they’re even creating the problem. The way they’re reporting security is as if the entire country is consumed,” he said.
Onanuga argued that many Nigerians still travel safely across the country and pointed to people making long road trips without problems.
“Don’t let people threaten you that the entire country is under siege. It’s not. There are security breaches. There are major security breaches,” he stated.
While admitting that kidnappings and attacks remain a concern, he noted that many incidents happen at night despite repeated warnings against night travel.
“Any time I read about either a kidnap or an attack somewhere, sometimes I look at the time. I say, wow, it happened 8 p.m., it happened 9 p.m., sometimes 1 a.m. A long time ago, the police told people to stop travelling at night,” Onanuga said.
His comments came during a discussion on terror-related deaths in Nigeria between 2015 and 2026. Responding to figures from Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited and ACLED that reportedly showed a rise in fatalities, Onanuga defended government statistics.
“You can’t be so categorical about that. The data we’re offering is the data provided by the Office of National Security Adviser. That’s the data we use,” he said.
Questioning the figures, he added: “Whoever has compiled this, where have you got it from?”
“They may be wrong. The data we have is the data from the Office of National Security Adviser. You cannot say the data is wrong and only this one is right,” he said.
