The Tiv Youth Council Worldwide has counseled former President Olusegun Obasanjo to act statesmanly and desist from making unguarded statements concerning the security challenges confronting Nigeria.

The president of the group, Hon. Mike Msuaan made the call while reacting to the statement credited to the former president.

While speaking at an event organised by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa in Abuja on Monday, Obasanjo said if Nigerians are expecting anything more from Buhari, they are “whipping a dead horse.”

The former president said Nigerians should be concerned about making the country a better place after Buhari’s tenure.

Reacting to the statement, the Tiv Youth Council said: “We admonish former President Obasanjo to be fair in his analysis of the security trajectory of the country. There was a time in our history where the bombing of worship centres and public places became the order of the day.

“Abuja, the Federal capital territory was not left out. BokoHaram had captured and hoisted flags in 19 local government areas of Borno state indicating a total capture. But today, the governor of Borno state is rehabilitating and returning many of the IDPs back to their communities.

“In recent history, President Muhammadu Buhari remains the only president who has purchased several sophisticated hardware for the military and other security agencies to tackle insecurity in the country. He has invested so much to position our security agencies to combat insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping.

“President Buhari has always assured Nigerians that he does not want to hand over an insecure country to his successor. Obasanjo’s comment is defeatist. It is capable of killing the morale of the officers and Nigerians.”

The council said President Buhari has responded to the call by many well-meaning Nigerians to eliminate the terrorists, bandits, and criminals.

The group added: “We have observed that at some point, former President Obasanjo wrote that, military force alone is the solution to eliminating these terrorists. We find it strange that he has said this time that, military force alone cannot stop the insurgency, banditry, and other criminal activities. That the stick and banana approach be used.

“We understand President Obasanjo antics, in the build-up to every election, he attempts to stir these kinds of sentiments against incumbent presidents. He did the same to Goodluck Jonathan and attempted this in the 2019 election against President Buhari.  “We call on Nigerians to continue to have confidence in the determination of President Buhari to fight all forms of criminality in the country. The citizens should continue to provide security agencies with the needed information to track down and arrest these criminal elements.”