Former president Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday defended the right of Nigerians to seek help from the United States and other countries amid the country’s security challenges.

He also accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of failure to protect lives and property as demanded by the constitution.

Mr Obasanjo, who spoke during a public programme in Jos, Plateau State, decried the killing of Nigerians of different religions, tribes and regions on a daily basis.

He stated, “No matter the religion you belong to, where you come from and your profession, we, Nigerians, are being killed.
And our government seems to be incapable of protecting us. We are part of the world’s community. If our government cannot do it, we have a right to call on international community to do for us what our government cannot do for us.”

Mr Obasanjo dismissed the claim the endless killings were targeted at a particular region, religion or tribe in the country, insisting that no Nigerian should be left to die.

The ex-president stated, “And for anybody to say because those who are being killed belong to this region, belong to this religion, belong to this tribe, and then others too are being killed, cannot be an acceptable excuse.”

The former president recalled that, unlike the Bola Tinubu-led administration, his government had the capacity to track, identify and arrest criminals from any part of the country.

“Before I left the government, I knew we had the capacity to pick up anybody in Nigeria who committed crimes anywhere. The capacity we didn’t have then is after we have identified and located such a criminal, we have no capacity to be able to pick him up without moving on land or by air,” he boasted.

Mr Obasanjo condemned peace deals or negotiations with terrorists, emphasising the need for the use of modern technological tools to track and arrest criminals.

“Now we have capacity with drones, you can take them (bandits) out. Why are we not doing that? Why are we apologizing? Why are we negotiating?,” the former president said.

Presidential spokesperson, Daniel Bwala, did not reply to calls made to his mobile and WhatsApp messages seeking comment on Mr Obasanjo’s allegation.

Mr Obasanjo’s statement came after President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a country of particular concern and threatened to invade the country over alleged killings of Christians by Islamist terrorists.

Meanwhile, Mr Tinubu, on Wednesday, declared a nationwide security emergency amid killings and kidnappings in different parts of the country, ordering fresh recruitment into the Armed Forces to reinforce ongoing operations across the country.