Presidency to Obasanjo: Terrorism Began Under Your Administration

The Presidency has criticised former President Olusegun Obasanjo for his recent comments on Nigeria’s security challenges, arguing that he is not in a position to fault President Bola Tinubu since terrorism “took root” during Obasanjo’s own tenure.

The Presidency also condemned Obasanjo’s suggestion that Tinubu should seek foreign assistance if he is unable to address the country’s worsening insecurity, describing the proposal as unstatesmanlike and an attempt to “subcontract Nigeria’s internal security to foreign governments.”

These remarks were made by President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, in a post on his verified X handle, @SundayDare.

In the statement titled “Between Tinubu’s capability and the ignobility of pseudo statesmanship,” the Presidency said:
“This administration will not be distracted by selective amnesia wrapped in elder-statesmanship, nor will it allow those who midwifed Nigeria’s early security failures to rewrite history.”

Dare continued:
“Recent comments by a former President and a few habitual presidential aspirants attempting to paint the Tinubu administration as ‘unable to protect Nigerians’ are not merely hypocritical but ignoble. They ignore the hard truth: Nigeria is facing terrorists — all of them — by every definition, be they international, regional or local. Yet the very individuals who looked away when these threats first sprouted now want to sit in judgment. Nigerians know better.”

He added that Obasanjo’s proposal for foreign intervention was a form of surrender:
“The suggestion that Nigeria should effectively subcontract its internal security to foreign governments is not statesmanship; it is capitulation. Before recommending surrender, the former President should reflect on what he failed to do when these terrorists first began organising under his watch.”

According to the Presidency, it is a fact that the country is under attack by terrorists and no alternative terminology can mask the reality.
“The people killing Nigerians, raiding villages, kidnapping innocents, blowing up infrastructure and challenging state authority are terrorists — whether they fly a foreign flag or none at all.”

It described Nigeria’s current threat as a “multilayered terrorist ecosystem” made up of:
– internationally listed terror groups,
– ISIS- and al-Qaeda-linked factions across the Sahel,
– local extremist groups posing as bandits,
– cross-border terrorist cells exploiting weak borders, and
– ideological insurgents and criminal-terror networks operating in ungoverned areas.

The Presidency insisted these networks are interconnected:
“They collaborate. They share money, ideology, weapons, intelligence and logistics. Their goal is the same: to break the Nigerian state and subjugate its people. Let’s call them what they all are: terrorists.”

It further argued that the rise of terrorism can be traced back to Obasanjo’s era:
“It is historical fact that the ideological foundations and early cells of Boko Haram were incubated during Obasanjo’s civilian presidency. While they recruited, indoctrinated, built camps and flaunted authority, the state failed to act decisively.”

According to the Presidency, what began as a small extremist movement eventually grew into:
– “a violent insurgency,”
– “a cross-border terrorist franchise,”
– “a regional menace aligned with global jihadist movements.”

The statement concluded:
“For the leader under whom the first seeds of terrorism were allowed to sprout, attempting to lecture a sitting President who is confronting the consequences is the height of irony.”

Opinion Nigeria News