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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has accused media organisations of creating a false narrative about insecurity in the country.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday, Onanuga argued that media reports often give the impression that the entire country is overwhelmed by insecurity, adding that it is inaccurate to portray the country as being under siege.
“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,” Onanuga said.
According to him, millions of Nigerians continue to travel safely across the country despite incidents of kidnapping and violent attacks.
“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 said.
Onanuga also suggested that some security incidents occur despite longstanding warnings from security agencies against travelling at night.
“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,” he added.
His comments come amid debates over the state of security in Nigeria following recent reports by security research organisations.
A report by Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) indicated that fatalities linked to insecurity increased between 2015 and 2025. The report found that deaths associated with groups such as ISWAP, bandits, IPOB, ESN and armed herders rose by 4.6 per cent during the period.
However, President Tinubu recently claimed that insecurity-related fatalities had declined by 81 per cent under his administration.
Defending the government’s figures, Onanuga said the administration relies on data provided by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“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.
