(DDM) – The office of the president yesterday fired a sharp rebuttal at former president Olusegun Obasanjo, asserting that the deadly militant insurgency by Boko Haram first took shape under his tenure.
The reaction came through a statement attributed to Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to Bola Tinubu on Public Communication and Orientation.
Dare described Obasanjo’s recent criticisms of the current administration’s handling of insecurity as hypocritical.
He accused Obasanjo of lacking the moral right to condemn any government, given that the roots of Boko Haram, and by extension, Nigeria’s ongoing insecurity, trace back to his time in power.
The presidency’s statement argued that Obasanjo’s administration laid groundwork for a crime wave that successive governments, including that of Tinubu, have struggled to contain.
Obasanjo had earlier warned that Boko Haram had become “virtually part of Nigerian life,” signaling concern that over two decades the insurgency had embedded itself deeply across the country.
But the presidency countered that seeing Boko Haram grow into a national security nightmare was not inevitable, if proper vigilance and institutional commitment had existed under Obasanjo’s watch.
According to Dare, Nigeria’s democracy also “suffered mortal wounds” under the former president, a claim underpinned by allegations of corruption, governance failures, and neglect of early warning signs.
Dare’s rebuke has added fuel to an already heated public debate on who bears responsibility for Nigeria’s chronic insecurity. While some analysts argue that structural factors and policy failures across administrations are to blame, others see Dare’s statement as politically motivated, casting blame backward to defend the current regime.
Observers say the timing of the rebuttal, coming just weeks after Obasanjo’s public remarks, underlines how the insecurity debate has become both a security and political battleground.
The presidency’s decision to single out Obasanjo’s era suggests an attempt to shift public attention from present shortcomings to past missteps.
Nevertheless, critics have pointed out that despite early confrontations with Boko Haram during Obasanjo’s tenure, the group persisted, morphed, and expanded under successive governments.
Whether the blame lies at past doorsteps, current failures, or systemic structural gaps, many Nigerians insist on nothing less than urgent reforms, transparent accountability, and robust security frameworks.