The government of President Bola Tinubu has blamed the heightened insecurity in the country on political actors allegedly fuelling crises to make his government appear weak.

Christopher Musa, Minister of Defence, made the claim in an interview with Arise TV on Tuesday.

“If you notice, anytime it’s a political year, it goes up,” he said, referring to the frequency of attacks. Mr Musa said this amid recent attacks by bandits and Boko Haram across the country.

He added, “Individuals want to take advantage to make the government look weak, or to show that they are still capable.”

According to the minister, political actors are fuelling insecurity to score political goals.

“You don’t have to kill the people you want to govern. If you’re popular, why not? But why do you have to go and make sure that things like this increase just because you want to make cheap goals?” Mr Musa said.

Meanwhile, as an opposition politician, Mr Tinubu had once called for the resignation of former President Goodluck Jonathan over the insecurity crisis ravaging the country in 2014.