Politics
VIDEO: Obasanjo calls for foreign help as insecurity escalates, warns FG against negotiating with terrorists
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the Federal Government to stop negotiating with terrorists and instead invite international support to confront the surge in violent attacks across the country.
Speaking on Friday at the Plateau State Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival in Jos, Obasanjo said the scale of killings and abductions shows that Nigeria’s security architecture is failing, insisting that citizens have the right to seek foreign intervention when their government cannot guarantee their safety.
“We Nigerians are being killed, and our government seems to be incapable of protecting us,” he said. “If our government cannot do it, we have the right to call on the international community to do for us what our government cannot do for us.”
Obasanjo’s remarks come amid a renewed wave of violence. In Niger State, bandits attacked the Palaita community in Shiroro Local Government Area this week, abducting 24 farmers, including pregnant women, from a rice field. Similar incidents were recorded in Kano and Kwara, where about 20 persons were kidnapped between Monday night and Tuesday morning.
The attacks followed the kidnapping of 26 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Maga, in Danko-Wasagu LGA of Kebbi State on November 17. Also in Kwara, 38 worshippers abducted from the Christ Apostolic Church, Oke-Isegun, Eruku, on November 18 were freed only after the Federal Government negotiated with their captors, an approach Obasanjo said must end.
On Tuesday, 10 more people, including a pregnant woman, nursing mothers and children, were taken in Isapa, a community near Eruku.
The former President questioned why the government continues to apologise and negotiate with criminals despite advances in surveillance and combat technology.
“Before I left office, we could identify and locate anyone who committed a crime anywhere in Nigeria, but we lacked the capacity to immediately apprehend them,” he said. “Now we have the technology. With drones, we can take them out. Why are we not doing that? Why are we negotiating?”
Obasanjo argued that with the availability of modern equipment and improved intelligence platforms, Nigeria has no justification for allowing bandits and terrorists to operate freely.
His comments heighten debate over the government’s current approach to tackling insecurity, as communities across the North continue to suffer repeated attacks with little sign of relief.
Watch video below:
