President Bola Tinubu has faced criticism from Kenneth Okonkwo of the African Democratic Congress for proceeding with his planned state visit to the United Kingdom despite recent explosions in Maiduguri, Borno State.

In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Okonkwo condemned the president for seeming to ignore the victims of the attacks, suggesting that cancelling the trip would have shown greater respect for those killed and injured.

He also argued that the timing was inappropriate, emphasizing that national mourning should take priority over international trips.

“It’s about telling the world that you prefer to respect the blood of your martyrs to riding on their blood and dancing on their graves in the United Kingdom.

“That red carpet there is the blood of the martyrs that Tinubu is treading upon. He should have cancelled it (UK Visit), cancelled it without equivocation,” Okonkwo said.

Okonkwo also criticized the president's choice to travel with the Minister of Defence. Meanwhile, Vice President Kashim Shettima was present at a political event in Anambra State, where he attended Governor Chukwuma Soludo's second-term swearing-in, which he found to be quite embarrassing.

“Why go with your minister of defence? Why would the vice president be celebrating in Anambra State? I can’t believe it, I feel embarrassed. You don’t understand that the death of one military man is a hit to a nation because their morale is boosted when you at least recognise.

“As they are going to fight, it can be any of them, so they derive their morale from how you treat the one that has fallen,” he said.

The ADC leader criticised the government's approach to security, claiming it has been ineffective in curbing the increasing violence nationwide. He pointed out that worsening economic struggles and areas beyond government control are contributing to growing insecurity and the rise of criminal recruitment.

“I was in your station the early days of Tinubu, and I told you that state police will not come, that Tinubu will continue to play the politics of it, and I tell you that Tinubu is incapable of solving the security problems and that is why it is metastasising all over the nation.

“So he is incapable, why? You don’t have enough boots on the ground, you have a lot of ungoverned spaces, hunger and hardship is increasing, suffering of people is increasing, they are easy to be recruited, criminality is not being punished,” Okonkwo added.