Monday, December 1, 2025 - The Presidency on Sunday rejected suggestions that Nigeria should hand over its internal security to foreign governments, describing such calls as capitulation.
In a rebuttal aimed at former President Olusegun Obasanjo,
it defended President Bola Tinubu’s strategies against terrorism, saying they
are yielding results.
In a post on his official X handle on Sunday, Special
Adviser to the President on Media and Communication, Sunday Dare, said attempts
to portray the Tinubu administration as unable to protect Nigerians were
ignoble, insisting that the country is confronting real terrorists.
Dare noted, “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 organizing
under his watch.”
Sunday’s reaction comes days after Obasanjo, on Friday, said
Nigerians have the right to seek help from the international community if the
government fails in its constitutional duty to protect them.
He made the comments in Jos at the Plateau State Unity
Christmas Carol and Praise Festival, amid a surge of killings and kidnappings
in the last week.
Obasanjo argued that the scale and persistence of violence
show Nigeria’s security system is no longer capable of confronting current
threats and that international intervention would be justified.
He also urged the Federal Government to stop negotiating
with terrorists and take more decisive action.
However, the Presidency faulted Obasanjo, saying his
comments were not statesmanlike.
“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,”
it said.
Dare reasoned that those now offering lectures looked away
when these threats first sprouted, insisting Nigerians know better.
“Yet the very individuals who looked away when these threats
first sprouted now want to sit in judgment. Nigerians know better,” he stated.
The Presidency argued that the killers of villagers,
kidnappers of innocent Nigerians, bombers of infrastructure and challengers of
state authority are terrorists, whether or not they carry a flag.
It said, “Nigeria is under attack by terrorists, full stop!
No euphemisms. No soft language.
“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 listed what it called a multilayered ecosystem:
internationally designated terror groups, ISIS- and al-Qaeda-linked Sahel
franchises, local violent extremists “masquerading as bandits,” cross-border
cells exploiting porous frontiers, and ideological insurgents blending crime
and terror in ungoverned spaces.
“Nigeria today confronts a multilayered terrorist ecosystem
that includes internationally designated terror organizations; ISIS-linked and
al-Qaeda-linked franchises across the Sahel; local violent extremist groups
masquerading as bandits; cross-border terrorist cells exploiting porous
frontiers; and ideological insurgents and criminal-terror hybrids operating in
ungoverned spaces.”
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