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Its A Disgrace For Neighbouring Countries To Join Boko Haram Fight – Buhari

Published

9 years ago

February 7, 2015

Presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is appalled that neighbouring Chad and Cameroun are turning out to be more successful at the battle front against Boko Haram than Nigeria.
Nigeria’s poor performance,he says,is a disgrace.
“It’s a big disgrace for Nigeria. It is now Cameroon and Chad fighting the insurgency more than Nigeria. We will build the capacity and Nigeria should be able to secure its territorial integrity,” Buhari told Reuters.
Troops from neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, all much smaller and poorer than Nigeria, have been battling the terrorists who have seized territory in Borno State.
Niger Republic said yesterday its troops killed 109 Boko Haram fighters in an attempted attack on Bosso close to the border with Nigeria.
The attack was repelled.
Buhari said that he was committed to using the courts if there are irregularities in the voting, and would not call his followers into the streets.
“I’m optimistic that I won’t lose. But we signed an undertaking that it will be violence free,” Buhari said. “We are attempting to stabilise a multi party democratic system.”
Buhari’s party,APC, insists that this month’s elections should proceed as scheduled ,saying the only reason the pro-Jonathan camp is pushing for a delay is that it knows he will lose if voting goes ahead now.
“There will be no delay. But if INEC is compromised then it will be too bad,” said Buhari.
Buhari said his administration also intends to tackle corruption within the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) and plans to reopen an investigation into missing crude revenues of around $20 billion.
He would also tackle the theft of crude tapped from pipelines in the Niger River delta.
“Our main objective is to secure the country. We will not tolerate insurgency, sabotage of the economy by the blowing up of installations, by stealing crude and so on…. All these things will be things of the past.”
“Having known how the Boko Haram developed, what I would have personally done differently would be to get the Presidents of Cameroun, Chad and Niger together to say, ‘look our borders are porous and that we are not able to effectively protect them and monitor movements of people in and out of our territory, but please make sure that you do not provide training facilities or allow people to be coming into the county.’ “
“If you do not cultivate a good relationship with your neighbours, it will cost you so much in terms of security and the economy. So you have to cultivate a friendship with your neighbours and then it goes on to ECOWAS, Africa and the rest of the world. I think this is a viable policy option.”
“Then you discuss with your neighbours to make sure that weapons are not crossing the borders and that there are [no] training facilities for terrorists.”