The Presidency has insisted that the war against Boko Haram insurgency has been won, despite recent attacks by the insurgents in the North-East.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said this in a statement on Tuesday.
He said, “The position of the Nigerian government is that the Boko Haram terrorism has been degraded and defeated. The real Boko Haram we know is defeated.
“What we have now is a mixture of remnants of the Boko Haram, fugitive criminals, and the Islam in Maghreb together with West African terrorists bonding together.”
“This is a fall out of the collapse of the Libyan State, and from farther away, of the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. They are taking advantage of our porous Sahelian borders,” the presidential aide added.
He noted that the nation has witnessed an increase of trans-border crimes and the proliferation of small arms in the Lake Chad Basin area as a result of what he described as ‘these international gangs’.
According to Shehu, outrages are common in Niger, Mali, Chad, and Cameroon while Nigeria is a large country covering nearly one million square kilometres.
“This is roughly equivalent to the size of France and Germany put together. In addition to our porous borders, in the neighbouring Sahel-Sahara region, a lot of ungoverned areas provide haven for terrorists’ occupation and training.
“Without the tremendous efforts of our armed forces and the joint operations by the Nigeria-led Multinational Joint Task Force, MNJTF, formed by the countries of the Lake Chad Basin, this single problem of illegal arms flow would have been much worse,” he said.
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The President’s spokesman insisted that the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari has made the country safer than it met it.
He said Boko Haram terrorism was active in nearly half the number of states in the country in 2015 when his principal took power.
Shehu believes the terrorists controlled a territory the size of Belgium, with a flag and systems of administration and taxation of their own.
He added that emirs and chiefs had fled their domains along with hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, noting that such was no longer the case now.
The presidential aide said, “At present, terrorist activities have been confined to the remote, rural agrarian areas of Borno State and pockets of outrages in Adamawa and Yobe States.
“As the situation develops, our fantastic armed forces are changing their tactics. Just recently, they launched ‘Super Camps’. The essence of this is to act proactively and respond quickly to the changing nature of terrorism.
“In addition to the additional support the government of Nigeria is receiving from friendly countries across Europe, the United States and the Middle East, the Nigerian government is spending large sums of money in weapons procurement to keep our military in good fighting shape.
“While the military arsenal is not something you pay for and get, requiring mostly long-time orders, weapons will come in accordance with the terms of contracts.
“This country is expecting the commencement of the delivery of Super Tucano fighter jets, very effective in this kind of warfare, beginning next year from the United States.”
Shehu disclosed that the Buhari administration has embarked on an electronic and digital border monitoring scheme to curtail the porosity of the borders.
He also said working with the UN agencies, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, donor agencies and friendly countries, the government has started providing solutions to backwardness in development and poverty in the sub-region.
According to the President’s spokesman, the very heart of recruitment schemes of the terrorists lies the issue of poverty.
He recalled that the present administration inaugurated the Northeast Development Commission a few weeks ago to fast track development and poverty eradication in the affected areas.
Shehu insisted that the Buhari administration was strongly encouraged by successes recorded so far by the military and the MNJTF.
He said the government was optimistic that the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) terrorism be defeated.
