Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria, has supported calls for international involvement to combat the country’s recent spate of killings and insecurity, claiming that the government is powerless to keep its residents safe.
On Friday, Obasanjo gave a speech at the Plateau Unity Christmas and Praise Festival, which took place at the 10 Commandments Prayer Altar in Dwei-Du, Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State.
He claims that thanks to advanced technology and satellites, the killers can be identified, tracked down, and eliminated.
“In this country, one problem we have is the problem of insecurity, and it has been with us. It didn’t begin with this administration and not even the administration before it. The first responsibility of any government is the protection our security of its citizens.”
“We are part of the world community, and if our government cannot protect us, we have right to call on the international community to do for us what our government cannot do for us. And for anybody to say because those who are being killed belong to this region, religion or tribe, and others too are being killed cannot be an acceptable excuse. Is that an explanation? I believe that is nonsensical.
“We Nigerians are being killed, no matter the religion you belong to, no matter where you come from and no matter the profession. We Nigerians are being killed, and our government seem to be incapable of protecting us.
“If we are being killed, it is the responsibility of the government to do something about it. Government should stop the killings of Nigerians no matter the religion they belong to, no matter the part of the world they belong to or tribe they belong to. We are being killed and the killing of Nigerians should be stopped.
“So we have the right as Nigerians to appeal to the international community to help us be a government cannot help us, and we should have no apologies for that. Those apologists who are saying they are killing this type of people and that type of people, that is not acceptable and nobody should accept that. We will be irresponsible to be saying that. For me, every Nigerian life that is lost to those criminals, no matter the reasons they give for it, it is a shame for Nigeria. And we should make sure that Nigeria gets out of that,” Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo continued by saying, “And in this day of technology and satellite, there should be nobody to hide anywhere after the commit such crime, and cannot be detected.
“Before I left government, I know we had capacity to pick up anybody in Nigeria who commit crime anywhere. And now we have much capacity to pick criminals up either by land or by air. With drones, you can see them all and you can take them out. But why are we not doing that? Why are we apologizing, and why are we negotiating?”
“And after government has paid this criminals, the government denies doing so, and then it continues. But it has to stop. We should appeal to our government to do what needs to be done to stop Nigerians being killed. We are being killed and we are tired of being killed, whether there are Christians or Muslims or pagans, they are Nigerians and the life of every Nigerian matters. The killings must stop, and it should stop.”
However, the former president emphasised that this is not a work that can be completed by a single set of people, stating that all hands should be on deck and that assistance from kindhearted individuals both within and outside of Nigeria is necessary.
Obasanjo stated that while the people continue to pray, they should also observe. He added that in order to preserve lives in this nation, the people should take the necessary actions and ask the government and its leaders to take the necessary actions at all levels and in all spheres of life.
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