President –Elect, Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration will crush the Boko Haram militants within two months of his assuming office, saying that security remains a top priority of his incoming administration.
“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,” Buhari said with air of certainty.
Buhari, who spoke Wednesday evening an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN.
According to him, The Federal Government made some mistakes in its fight against Boko Haram which his administration will address.
Buhari however stressed the importance of the support and assistance of Nigeria’s neighbours: Niger, Cameroon and Chad to help checkmate the militants.
He said, “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.”
Asked where the Jonathan administration went wrong, he said: “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.”
