“The Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces and all the paramilitary is the President. Under President Buhari, serious and seemingly undeniable allegations were made that the military were not even-handed in dealing with criminals and criminal groups in the country.”
These were the words with which Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s longest leader threw darts at former President Muhammadu Buhari, for allegedly shielding and provided cover for certain criminal elements that terrorised the nation when he was in power.
Stressing that Buhari, who like Obasanjo, was both a military Head of State and civilian President was selective in determining the criminal groups the military must fight, he attributed this to the exacerbated national insecurity challenge the country was experiencing.
In his latest book: Nigeria: Past and Future, Obasanjo, said: “There were favourite criminals and criminal groups of the President Buhari administration who must be treated with velvet knuckles and those who must be treated with hammer knuckles.”
Citing allegations made by General T. Y. Danjuma few years ago that terrorists and criminal elements freely committed heinous and abhorrent crimes while the military did nothing to stop them, Obasanjo said: “When a person of the calibre of General T. Y. Danjuma, a man who is not known for flippancy, made such an accusation, it must be taken seriously.
“It would then appear that the order given to the military to engage the criminal elements to ensure peace, order, security, stability, development and progress was selective in location and quantum of force, including utilisation of armament
“That would be the greatest undermining of peace and security from the highest level and that would make all other exercises fruitless and abortive. What a great and monumental tragedy!”
