Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has rejected growing calls for negotiations with bandits, insisting that Nigeria must take decisive action including seeking international assistance to curb the worsening wave of insecurity across the country.
Obasanjo spoke on Friday at the Plateau State Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival in Jos, where he urged the Federal Government to stop apologising to or engaging in dialogue with armed groups responsible for killings and abductions in several northern states.
His comments come amid a string of attacks that have intensified public outrage. On November 21, gunmen abducted 315 students and 13 teachers from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State.
Just days earlier, 26 schoolgirls were taken from the Government Girls Secondary School, Maga, in the Danko-Wasagu area of Kebbi State.
In a more recent attack, bandits invaded Palaita community in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, kidnapping 24 people, including pregnant women, from a rice farm.
Around 20 others were abducted in separate incidents in Kano and Kwara between Monday night and Tuesday morning.
These incidents occurred less than 24 hours after 38 worshippers abducted from Christ Apostolic Church, Oke-Isegun, Eruku, Kwara State, were released following government negotiations with their captors.
During the Tuesday attack in Kwara, bandits also seized 10 people, including a pregnant woman, nursing mothers, and children, in Isapa community near Eruku.
Addressing these developments, Obasanjo said Nigerians have the right to seek help beyond the country’s borders if the government fails in its constitutional duty to ensure their safety.
“No matter what religion you belong to, no matter where you come from, no matter your profession, we Nigerians are being killed, and our government seems to be incapable of protecting us,” he said.
“We are part of the world community. 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 added that modern technology offers Nigeria the means to dismantle terrorist networks if properly deployed. He recalled that during his presidency, security agencies were capable of identifying and tracking criminals, even though they lacked the technology to apprehend them without physical deployment.
“Before I left government, I knew we had the capacity to pick up anybody in Nigeria who commits a crime anywhere,” he said. “The capacity we didn’t have then was after identifying and locating such a criminal, we couldn’t apprehend him without moving on land or by air.
“Now we have capacity. With drones, we can sleeve them up. You can take them out. Why are we not doing that? Why are we apologising? Why are we negotiating?”