Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Friday, slammed calls for fresh negotiations with bandits, declaring that Nigeria must take firm military action and accept international partnership to halt worsening insecurity.
Naijaonpoint reports that Obasanjo spoke in Jos, the Plateau State capital, at the Plateau State Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival, warning that a diplomacy-heavy response to terrorism signalled weakness when citizens were dying.
Recall that on November 21, terrorists stormed St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, abducting 315 students and 13 teachers in one of the largest school seizures this year.
The attack came three days after 26 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State.
Twenty-four persons, including pregnant women, were also abducted from a rice farm in Palaita community, Erena Ward, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
Separately, gunmen seized 20 people in Kano and Kwara between Monday night and Tuesday morning, leaving villages deserted and main roads empty for hours during the raids.
The latest public backlash followed the release of 38 worshippers earlier abducted from the Christ Apostolic Church, Oke-Isegun, Eruku, Ikere, Kwara State, after the Federal Government negotiated with the abductors.
The rescue, although celebrated by church members, has been criticised by security watchers as a precedent that emboldens terror contractors who rely on ransom politics.
The former president insisted that international assistance, intelligence fusion, and modern surveillance tech now make it easier to flush out terrorists from their hideouts
Obasanjo, speaking on the development, said, “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.
“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.”
He added, “Before I left the government, I knew we had the capacity to pick up anybody in Nigeria who commits a crime anywhere. The capacity we didn’t have then was that, 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?”
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