The Federal Government on Wednesday faulted ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and other critics who said President Muhammadu Buhari has nothing more to offer in office.
It described the alleged skewed narrative in certain quarters that the President has not shown enough empathy on security challenges in the country as glib talk.
The government warned Nigerians against the use of incendiary and insulting words, especially by leaders of all hues, which can overheat the polity and heighten tension.
It said with a recent court declaration, bandits have been declared as terrorists.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the clarifications at a briefing in Abuja against the backdrop of increasing banditry and kidnappings in the country.
Ex-President Obasanjo had on Monday claimed that President Buhari has nothing more to offer the nation.
He said the nation should start looking beyond the tenure of Buhari by shopping for a new leader in 2023.
But Mohammed said the assessment of the President by Obasanjo and others was wrong because Buhari was offering the nation his best.
The Minister said: “If anybody is worried today about the security situation of the country, it is Mr. President.
“Gentlemen, President Buhari has done so much, under very difficult economic and social conditions, to tackle insecurity in our country.
“Not only has he done so much. President Buhari continues to do much more to keep Nigerians safe. To say he has nothing more to offer is untrue, fallacious and smacks of dirty politicking.
“By boosting the number and capacity of our fighting forces, Mr. President is putting them in good stead to tackle insecurity not just during the life of his administration but long after he would have left office.”
Mohammed assured Nigerians that Buhari will leave the nation better with sustainable achievements.
He added: “President Buhari is leaving a legacy of security, infrastructural development, economic prosperity and social cohesion for Nigeria.
“This may not seem obvious today, amidst daunting challenges, but posterity will be kind to this President.
“Despite all this, President Buhari has not relented, constantly presiding over meetings of security chiefs to get an update and alsoissue necessary directives, and not missing any opportunity to offer succour to his countrymen and women, when necessary.
“The skewed narrative in certain quarters that the President has not shown enough empathy is glib talk.
“The President has also continued to work with our neighbouring countries and indeed our Western partners to tackle insecurity, especially terrorism.
“With the entire Sahelian region experiencing a devastating surge in terrorist attacks, more so in the wake of the Libyan crisis, it has become even more imperative for Nigeria to step up regional cooperation to more effectively tackle insecurity – and that is what Mr. President has been doing.”
Asked why the Federal Government’s position on the status of bandits, Mohammed said:” I think the AGF went to court and got a declaration. As far as the law is concerned today, bandits are terrorists. But it is not me or you that will say that they are terrorists, the court has made a declaration.
Regarding the gazette on the court declaration, the Minister said: “There is a process for everything, we should be patient. The Attorney-General of the Federation won’t go to court for nothing. For the AGF to go to court, it is the biggest step to declare bandits as terrorists.”
Speaking at an event organised by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa in Abuja on Monday, elder statesmen and leaders of socio-cultural organisations in the country had lamented the incessant killings in the country, urging government to take concrete actions to ensure security, and match words with actions.
The elder statesmen included former President Olusegun Obasanjo; the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar; National Leader of Pan Niger-Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark; Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum, Chief Audu Ogbeh; President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, represented by the Deputy President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Archbishop John Praise; Aare Ona-Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Otunba Gani Adams; Bishop of Evangelism and Discipleship, Methodist Church Nigeria, Reverend. Sunday Onuoha; and Director of Publicity and Advocacy in Northern Elders Forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
Obasanjo said that Buhari had done his best and Nigerians should not expect anything more from him; noting that expecting anything more from Buhari is “whipping a dead horse”.
The former president said Nigerians should be concerned about making the country a better place after Buhari’s tenure.
According to Obasanjo: “President Buhari has done his best.
“That is what he can do. If we are expecting anything more than what he has done or what he is doing, that means we’re whipping a dead horse and there is no need.
“Then, where do we go from here? We cannot fold our hands. I believe that is part of what we’re doing here and what we continue to be doing. How do we prepare for post-Buhari? Buhari has done his best. My prayer is that God will spare his life to see his term through.”
The former president said political will should be matched with “political action” to tackle the country’s security challenges.
“The problem of insurgency will not go away, if all we are using is the stick,” Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo said political will must be matched with political action to address insecurity.
He said military actions alone would not effectively end insecurity, adding that government must embrace the carrot and stick approach in addressing Nigeria’s security issues.
He said, “People talk of political will, but I talk of political action. Political will is not enough. It must be matched by political action.
“The problem of insurgency will not go away, if all we are using is the ‘stick’ (military action). We may suppress it, and keep it down a bit, but we have to use ‘carrot and stick’ together to effectively tackle the problems.”
At the event, the Sultan assessed the insecurity in the country and said all was not well with the nation.
The Sultan, who lamented insecurity in the country, said that lives should be considered sacred.
He said, “As leaders, we must always look at one thing, let us serve humanity first. So, we must stop politicising insecurity.
“It’s unfortunate that this is what we are seeing across the land. Parties are accusing one another of not doing enough to tackle insecurity. I think that is the major problem we have been facing in the country.
“I want to say there is hope in finding solutions to the numerous problems facing us, because I know all of us here believe and identify that we have problems. To know you have a problem is to have half of the solution. And the other half we are looking for, can come from this kind of gathering, if we are circumspect and talk to each other with honesty and sincerity as we discuss in efforts to bring peace and stability to our country.
“Peace is the most important aspect of our lives because without peace, you just can’t do anything. All is not well with our country, and I think this forum is very important.”
The Bishop of Evangelism and Discipleship, Methodist Church Nigeria, Reverend. Sunday Onuoha, regretted that the security problems in the country were worsened by the perceived existence of a wide gulf of trust deficit amongst the many divides in the country.
He stated, “Very few are trusted around dialogue tables; so-called influencers have betrayed the young, that now they thumb their noses at the heritage we once held so dear, and they stand against traditional institutions that give us the unique identities we pride ourselves by.”
The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, represented by the Deputy President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Archbishop John Praise, urged the elite to sustain pressure on politicians to ensure that the successes recorded in the country’s effort to fight insecurity were not botched.
He said: “There has to be justice and fairness, if peace is going to reign in the country.
“We need to keep putting pressure on government to let the security operatives live up to their responsibilities. They are making efforts, but they can do more.”
The Aare Ona-Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Otunba Gani Adams, on his part, said that peace would continue to elude Nigeria, if the “fraud” in the 1999 constitution was not removed.
He said, “This oligo-military constitution of 1999 that we are operating in Nigeria is not a product that emanated from Nigerians.
“We must rise to condemn it. We must unite to say that this constitution should be trashed and Nigerians should be put together to write a new constitution.”
The national leader of Pan Niger-Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, said food scarcity was causing insecurity.
He stated, “The Nigeria we are in today does not provide anything for the common man. If oil is produced in your land and exploited, you should at least be rehabilitated with that resources.
“The problem in the country is hunger because the people don’t have any means of livelihood anymore,” Clark said.
The Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said Nigeria was drifting away from the normal, saying that the economy does not allow for growth and development.
He stated that a hungry man was an angry man, stressing that the problems of Nigeria were mounting up every day.
Ogbe said leaders should not deceive Nigerians that things were getting better.
“Can we end the current violence? The question here is not just the socio-political issues we are dealing with. Something is fundamentally wrong with the economy.
“We are a nation of importers of everything. Today, it is impossible to build a factory. The youths can’t cope because the economy just doesn’t allow growth”, he said.
The Director of Publicity and Advocacy in Northern Elders Forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, stated that insecurity would continue to fester in the country if incompetent persons occupied leadership positions in the country.
Meanwhile, Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, said the bandits took to crime to revenge the killing of their families by the military through airstrikes.
According to him, the bandits were victims seeking justice, so, he warned that it was important for government to meet with them urgently before they become uncontrollable.
He said, “We all know that bandits initially don’t kill people. They only kidnap people to get money, but something has metamorphosed and turned them into a Frankenstein monster that kill people just for the pleasure of it.”
But the President of the Middle-Belt Forum, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, said the people of the region were suffering unprovoked attacks by bandits.
“Most of these attacks on innocent communities are unprovoked. So far, over 186 communities in Kaduna have been sacked and the people displaced. Whenever we call a spade by its name trouble follows. These mindless killings are atrocities committed on an unimaginable scale in our society”, he said.
The Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Okey Emuchay, said, “Without security, every other sector is in danger, and there is very little a country can achieve. The insecurity in Nigeria has a huge socio-economic impact on the country.”
An elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, stated, “We can sit here all day and talk to each other, but if we leave without following up our decisions with actions, we have wasted our time. Unfortunately, that is what is happening in the country today.”
