President –Elect, Mu h amm a du Buhari has reassured that his administration will crush the Boko Haram militants within two months of his assuming office.
General Buhari spoke yesterday evening during an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN, monitored in Lagos.
He said there is insecurity in the north-east and in the Niger Delta regions just as he explains “we know how they started and where they are now and we will rapidly give attention to security in the country. And I believe we will effectively deal with them in two months when we get into office.”
He said the Federal Government made some mistakes in its fight against Boko Haram and his administration will addressed the issues. Buhari however stressed the importance of the support and assistance of Nigeria’s neighbours: Niger, Cameroon and Chad to help checkmate the militants.
“We will be needing the cooperation of neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger. There were efforts made by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, but it was not good enough and it came rather late,” he said.
But where did the Jonathan administration go wrong. Buhari drew attention to the poor showing of the Nigerian military in the fight against Boko Haram and explained thus: “We expected the Federal Government four years ago to sit down with these countries and make sure they do not allow the terrorists free movement across borders, training facilities and movement of weapons.
“These were only done a few months ago and we have seen how Cameroon, Chad and Niger are fighting Boko Haram more than Nigeria is doing until recently. Really we have seen enough and we have enough law enforcement to face Boko Haram squarely.”
Buhari is confident that under his government, the Nigeria Army will perform differently. He also said the performance of the military was affected by corruption in the system.
“They will…if you recall, the Nigerian soldiers out of all ethical expectations were granting interviews to foreign journalists, saying they were being sent to fight terrorists without proper weapons
“And then the National Assembly attempted to conduct a hearing to find out how much money was approved for training and weapon in the last three years but that hearing was scuttled by the administration.”