Emeka Anyaoku, a former Commonwealth secretary-general and diplomat, on Thursday condemned the spate of killings and insecurity nationwide.

He said it had ballooned into a full-blown survival crisis under President Bola Tinubu’s watch.

Mr Anyaoku, 93, who spoke on behalf of elder statesmen under a group called The Patriots, said the rate of unchecked killings and extreme poverty had become worrisome, citing the recent abductions in Oyo and Ekiti states. 

He also called for the review of the 1999 Constitution, saying that it had become obsolete. 

According to him, a new constitution should be formulated by the Nigerian people to better reflect current realities.

“We express serious concern over the unabated killings, kidnappings, and the sacking of communities by bandits taking place in many parts of the country, including especially in the North-East, North-West, North-Central, and more recently, the South-West zones,” Mr Anyaoku said.

The nonagenarian condemned the rapidly growing number of internally displaced persons and farmers who fled their communities to seek refuge, saying Nigeria was on the brink of a food crisis.

“We are anguished that the number of people being driven into the camps for internally displaced persons, the IDPs, has been growing and that more and more farmers are unable to return to their farms because of the activities of the bandits, and that thereby increases the threat of food insecurity in the country,” he said.

He urged the government to establish a committee to make recommendations on how to handle what he described as a survival crisis.

Mr Anyaoku also urged all political candidates to focus on issue-based campaigns to address insecurity in the country rather than engaging in “personal vitriolic attacks.”