The Presidency has sharply rebuked former President Olusegun Obasanjo after he criticised President Bola Tinubu’s handling of Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, saying the former leader “lacks the credibility” to pass judgment.
Obasanjo, speaking at an event in Jos, Plateau State, on Friday, said insecurity had deteriorated to a level where Nigerians might legitimately seek foreign intervention, arguing that the government had failed to protect its citizens sufficiently.
But in a fierce rebuttal issued through presidential aide Sunday Dare on his verified X account, the Presidency accused Obasanjo of presiding over the period during which terrorism first took root in Nigeria.
It alleged that early extremist cells emerged under his watch, eventually evolving into the Boko Haram insurgency.
“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.
“The very individuals who looked away when these threats first sprouted now want to sit in judgment,” the statement read.
The Presidency said Obasanjo’s suggestion that Nigeria seek foreign help amounted to “capitulation,” insisting that no responsible leader should advocate outsourcing the country’s internal security.
“Before recommending surrender, the former President should reflect on what he failed to do when these terrorists first began organising under his watch,” it stated.
The government stressed that Nigeria is confronting a “multilayered terrorist ecosystem,” including internationally designated groups, Sahel-based affiliates of ISIS and al-Qaeda, violent extremist groups posing as bandits, and cross-border criminal-terror networks. These actors, it said, are united in their aim to destabilise the state.
According to the Presidency, it is “a historical fact” that the ideological foundations of Boko Haram were laid during Obasanjo’s administration, which it accused of failing to act early enough to prevent the group’s growth.
“What began as a preventable extremist sect transformed into a violent insurgency and a regional menace aligned with global jihadist movements.
“For the leader under whom the first seeds of terrorism were allowed to germinate to now issue public lectures is not just ironic, it is reckless,” it said.
While restating Nigeria’s willingness to cooperate with international partners, including the United States and other allied nations, the Presidency maintained that the country would not “outsource its security or surrender its sovereignty.”
“Nigeria will cooperate internationally, yes, but it will not raise a white flag because someone who once had the chance lost his nerve,” the statement added.
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