Formers Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take stronger action in identifying and confronting the Bandits causing problems in communities all over the country
He said that if the government fails to address the growing insecurity, Nigerians have the right to seek help from outside the country.
The former President said this on Friday, November 28, during his speech at the Plateau Unity Christmas and Praise Festival.
“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. If we are being k!lled, it is the responsibility of the government to do something about it.
We should ask the government to do what it has to do at all levels. We should ask our leaders to do what they have to do at all levels, in all walks of life,” Obasanjo said
Obasanjo explained that in the modern world, with all the technology, surveillance, and global communication available today, it has become extremely difficult for anyone to commit a crime and then disappear or go unpunished, because authorities and systems can track and hold people accountable more effectively than ever before.
“In these days of technology, there should be nobody hiding anywhere after he has committed a crime that cannot be seen with the present-day satellite.”
He went on to question why the government would even consider negotiating with criminals or paying them, asking what sense it made to reward those who break the law instead of holding them accountable.
“Before I left government, I knew we had the capacity to pick up anybody in Nigeria. The capacity we didn’t have then was that, after we had identified and located such a criminal, we didn’t have the capacity to pick him up without moving on land or by air. Now we have the capacity with drones. You can take them out. Why are we not doing that? Why are we negotiating? And after government has paid these criminals, government denies!
We should appeal to our government to do what needs to be done to stop Nigerians being killed.
We are tired of being killed, and we want the killing of Nigerians, whether they are Christians or Muslims or pagans, they are Nigerians, and the life of every Nigerian matters. It should stop,” he emphasized.
He urged the president to take a close and careful look at Nigeria’s security system, stressing the need to identify its weaknesses and ensure that the country can effectively protect its citizens.
