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| President Muhammadu Buhari with members of #BBOG camapign in Aso Rock |
President Muhammadu Buhari declared yesterday that Boko Haram
militants and their gory activities did not in no way represent Islam or any
other religion, saying it was ludicrous for them to kill innocent human beings
and claim they did so in Allah’s name.
“You can’t go and kill
innocent people and say ‘Allah Akbar’! It is either you don’t believe it or you
don’t know what you are saying. So, it has nothing to do with religion. They
(Boko Haram) are just terrorists and Nigeria will demobilize all of them,” he
vowed.
The president stated this
when he met with members of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group and some
parents of the over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok town in Borno State who were
abducted by Boko Haram in April last year.
Led by former education
minister, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Hadiza Bala-Usman and Mariam Uwais, the group met
with Buhari inside the council chambers in Aso Villa. Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, security chiefs and other officials also attended the meeting.
Leadership report continues:
Addressing the group,
Buhari also said there is no justification for the incompetent manner in which
the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan handled
the abduction of the over Chibok girls.
According to him,
conflicting reports given by the federal government and the security chiefs a
few days after the girls were abducted projected the Jonathan government in bad
light both at the local and international level.
“In representing the
government of Nigeria, we cannot rationalize government’s incompetence in
dealing with this issue. We only ask for your patience,” Buhari stated.
He described government’s
response to the abduction of the girls at the time as unfortunate and far from
being impressive.
Berating the sect, he
said the terrorist group’s activities were bizarre and inconsistent with the
faith they proclaimed.
“We are pleased that, in
the excesses of the terrorists, they have blown up themselves. I think they
have to change their names from Boko Haram to something else because no
religion will kill the innocents,” he said.
The president expressed
dismay that Nigeria, which had a track record of having a formidable military
that performed excellently in peace keeping missions across the globe, was now
seeking help from her less endowed neighbours to halt the raging insurgency.
Blaming the past
government for some of the security lapses, he said, “It is unfortunate that the
security agencies’ and federal government’s conflicting reports initially
presented the government and its agencies in a very bad light both nationally
and internationally because the law enforcement agencies and the government
were conflicting with each other, sometimes within hours or within weeks.
“That is not very
impressive. The delayed and late reaction by former government and its agencies
was very unfortunate, as I said.”
Buhai explained he was
taking the issue of insurgency seriously, and gave the assurance his government
would bring the Boko Haram sect to its knees in a matter of time.
He said: “I think you
will agree that the present government takes the issue very seriously. Within a
week of being sworn in, I visited Niger, Chad and would have visited Cameroon
but for the invitation of the G7 to go to Germany and listen to them.
“I’m very impressed with
the leadership of this important group (G7). Other than the United Nations
itself, they are very concerned about the security in Nigeria which led to the
abduction of the Chibok girls by the terrorists.
“When the terrorists
announced their loyalty to ISIS, the whole attention again was brought squarely
to Nigeria. And now we are rated with Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; this is very
unfortunate.
“After Ramadan, I will
visit Cameroon to see the president there and then Benin Republic. But the
efforts we have been making, some we will not disclose publicly, but I assure
you that under the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the military forces have met,
the ministers of defence have met, we the presidents have met here in Abuja
except the president of Cameroon who was represented by his minister of
defence”.
The president continued:
“Strategies and tactics have been drawn, Multinational Joint Task Force has been
put in place more or else with headquarters in N’Djamena with a Nigerian
general as commander. And then the troops delegated by each of the countries
are to be put in place by the end of the month.
“And Nigeria, I assure
you will do its best because we, as I said, are the battle ground and we are
being helped by our neighbours. It is paradoxical what the Nigerian military
has achieved from Burma to Zaire to Liberia to Sierra Leon to Sudan. But
Nigeria has now to be helped by Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. How are the mighty
fallen.
“We will do our best to
restore the respectability of our country and its institutions. And with you,
your steadfastness and your seriousness, we will do what we can do; we will
accommodate all your observations, including the negative ones about the
performance of the government and its agencies,” the president said.
Buhari further assured
the BBOG that government would provide infrastructure in Chibok community.
The BBOG had earlier told
the president that they decided to march to the presidential villa to brief him
about their struggle, following their suspicion that the narrative it may have
received from the immediate past administration might be full of distortions.
Leadership recalls that
this was the first time the group would be received in Aso Villa after such
attempts in the past were fiercely resisted by the last administration.
Presenting their demands
to the president, Ezekwesili urged the federal government to apologize for the
failure of governance that led to the abduction of the schoolgirls in the first
place, and the inability to rescue them after more than a year in captivity.
She noted that the main
priority of the BBOG was to ensure that the girls were immediately released,
as, according to her, they had over stayed in the hands of their captors.
The group also demanded
that a structured feedback mechanism be established at a ministerial level by
government to show that citizens matter.
She said, “The federal
government should spare no resources in urgently rescuing our 219 Chibok girls
as promised by the president and the National Security Adviser of the President
at various times. Our federal government has the constitutional duty to give
justice to our Chibok girls by ensuring their immediate rescue.
“The rescue of our Chibok
girls will amount to the strongest statement that our government has respect
for the sanctity and dignity of every Nigerian life.”
They also requested that
the federal government set up a commission of inquiry on the abduction and
rescue of the girls.
Representative of Chibok
Development Association in Abuja, Dauda Iliya, sought the immediate rescue of
the abducted girls, just as he appealed to the president to ensure that the
agrarian Chibok community was provided with basic social amenities.
Others who attended the
meeting included the head of service, national security adviser, service
chiefs, inspector-general of police, permanent secretary (State House) and the
new director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS).
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