Peter Obi, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, commended Northern traditional rulers for addressing Nigeria’s escalating insecurity during a Kano security summit on April 15, 2025, per Channels TV.
Obi, speaking via a statement reported by The Guardian, thanked the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, and the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, for urging federal action against banditry and kidnapping, which claimed 7,000 lives in 2024, per Amnesty International. The rulers’ joint call for community policing and youth empowerment resonated with Obi’s governance stance, per Vanguard.
The summit, attended by 200 leaders, highlighted 1,500 kidnappings in Kaduna and Zamfara in 2024, per ACLED data, with 80% of incidents tied to ungoverned rural areas. Obi praised the rulers’ proposal for 10,000 local vigilantes, noting Nigeria’s police force of 400,000 is overstretched for 220 million people, per NPF data.
He urged Tinubu to adopt the plan, citing a 20% rise in Northern unemployment to 38%, per NBS 2024, as a driver of unrest. The summit’s resolutions, submitted to the presidency, await action, as 90% of Nigerians feel unsafe, per Afrobarometer 2024.