Nigerian Lives Are Not Disposable, SDP Tells APC-led Government

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has said human life in Nigeria has become distressingly cheap, accusing the government of turning a blind eye while citizens are killed, kidnapped, and displaced daily.

SDP National Publicity Secretary, Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, in a statement released on Tuesday, said the crisis of organised criminality that erupted since 2018 has systematically eroded the worth of Nigerian lives.

He blamed government silence for emboldening bandits, armed herdsmen, and unknown gunmen nationwide. “Villages are raided and men killed before their families, while women suffer sexual slavery in terrorist camps and schoolchildren are abducted for ransom. Major highways like Abuja-Kaduna have become death traps as farmers are chased from ancestral lands,” he said.

Aiyenigba noted that in the North-West and North-Central, entire communities are burnt to ashes by armed herdsmen. In the South-East, unknown gunmen kill civilians and security personnel with impunity, while the South-West sees rich farmlands abandoned due to marauders.

He argued that the atrocities persist due to lack of political will, not capacity. He alleged that government pays ransoms instead of launching decisive military campaigns, grants amnesties to bandits who return to crime, and arrests vigilante groups while criminals walk free.

Aiyenigba described the response as selective outrage, where rural massacres in Zamfara draw little attention until violence nears Abuja.

“The message is clear: rural lives matter less to those in power, leaving millions in fear and despair. Against this backdrop, the SDP is offering a rescue mission built on tackling poverty, inequality, and marginalisation. Also, the party’s National Chairman, Prof. Sadiq Umar Abubakar Gombe, has urged government to make citizens’ safety a top priority,” he added.

The party also cited its presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, who pledged to end political control of security agencies and stop using them to solve political problems, and demand accountability and the disciplining of corrupt officials internally.

Aiyenigba lamented Nigeria’s 63 percent poverty rate cited by the World Bank, with over 140 million people living below the poverty line, linking insecurity, corruption, and poor governance to unemployment, low productivity, and a worsening cost of living.

He urged Nigerians to reject the APC at the polls and join the SDP’s People’s Movement, calling the first quarter of 2027 a defining moment for national redemption and a chance to restore dignity to Nigerian lives.