The Presidency has dismissed claims that the Federal Government is considering hiring international mercenaries to support the fight against terrorism, describing the idea as unstatesmanlike and a form of surrender.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, issued the clarification on Sunday in response to criticism from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other stakeholders who argued that Nigeria should seek external assistance if security challenges appear overwhelming.
According to Dare, it is perplexing that individuals who “looked away when these threats first sprouted now want to sit in judgment.”
He maintained that terrorism gained ground under previous administrations because decisive action was not taken early enough.
The Presidency said, “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.”
Dare also criticised former President Obasanjo, noting that comments undermining the nation’s security capabilities hand psychological victories to terrorists responsible for killings, kidnappings and extortion.
According to him, a true statesman should lend support rather than issue political jabs.
“Yet the very individuals who looked away when these threats first sprouted now want to sit in judgment. Nigerians know better.
“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 organising under his watch.
“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.
“Nigeria today confronts a multilayered terrorist ecosystem that includes: internationally designated terror organisations, 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.
“These actors collaborate. They share money, ideology, weapons, intelligence, and logistics. Their goal is the same: to break the Nigerian state and subjugate its people. Let’s call them what they all are: terrorists.
“Terrorism took root on his watch and grew because it was not stopped. It is historical fact that the ideological foundations and early cells of Boko Haram were incubated during Obasanjo’s civilian presidency. While they recruited, indoctrinated, built camps, and flaunted authority, the state failed to act decisively.
“What began as a preventable extremist sect transformed into: a violent insurgency, a cross-border terrorist franchise, a regional menace aligned with global jihadist movements.
“For the leader under whom the first seeds of terrorism were allowed to germinate to now issue public lectures is not just ironic, it is reckless”.
Dare argued that President Tinubu’s approach to the security crisis is already yielding results, stressing that the administration is battling a sophisticated and multi-dimensional terror threat.
“He is confronting terrorism in full-spectrum form, both internal and trans-national. His strategy is clear: kinetic pressure, modernising military capability, intensifying intelligence-led operations, squeezing terrorist mobility and dismantling logistics, retaking and holding territory.
“Nigeria will cooperate internationally, yes, but it will not outsource its security or raise a white flag because someone who once had the chance lost his nerve. Yes. Nigeria needs the support and understanding of the United States and that is already ongoing. And of course the collaboration of other allied nations. The crime at hand is transnational. Every ungoverned space must come under scrutiny.
“When former leaders disparage the nation’s capacity, they hand psychological victories to the very terrorists murdering, kidnapping and extorting Nigerians – terrorising Nigerians in plain language. A real statesman offers support, not soundbites.
“If Obasanjo wishes to help, he should acknowledge the past failures that allowed terrorists to gain a foothold, and then support ongoing efforts, not undermine them. Let him put his position and connections at Nigeria’s disposal like he has done for other countries. Not seek to put down an administration that is fully engaging in many fronts: economic turnaround, providing security and building key infrastructure.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu remains committed to securing every inch of Nigeria by confronting terrorists with strength, unity, and a whole-of-government strategy. Let all patriots join hands now and not raise alarms.
“This administration will not be distracted by selective amnesia wrapped in elder-statesmanship, nor will it allow those who midwifed Nigeria’s early security failures to rewrite history”.
