The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said Boko Haram was on the verge of declaring an Islamic State in Nigeria before the Muhammadu Buhari administration assumed office in 2015 and tackled the terrorists head-on.
Mohammed said from inception, the Buhari administration had prioritized the fight against insecurity and has continued to do more in that regard.
The minister was responding to former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who recently said that President Buhari had done his best and expecting more from him would amount to “whipping a dead horse”.
Obasanjo had told attendees at an event organized by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa on Monday in Abuja that Nigerians must start thinking of ways to “make post-Buhari better than what we have now”.
He said for the country to address the problem of insurgency facing it, “we have to use ‘carrot and stick’ together to effectively tackle the problems.”
But responding on Wednesday, Mohammed claimed that some leaders were commenting on the country’s security challenges “for selfish ends” and not out of genuine concerns.
“…it is easy to forget where we are coming from. Today, we only look at the current situation, without wondering what would have been had this President not taken the bull by the horns, as far as security is concerned.
“With the way the insurgents were going before this Administration came into office, with their control of a vast swath of land the size of Belgium, with their freewheeling attacks in almost a dozen states, including the Federal Capital Territory which was hit at least five times, perhaps they could have achieved their aim of declaring an Islamic State in Nigeria, if President Buhari had not acted decisively. After all, in 2014, Boko Haram declared a Caliphate in Gwoza after capturing Bama and Gamboru as well as other towns and villages in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. They installed their own Emirs, collected taxes and flew their flag before the military dislodged them,” he said.
Mohammed said banditry and kidnapping have worsened the country’s security situation but noted that the Buhari administration has “continued to provide quality leadership in order to ensure that our security agencies decisively tackle the cankerworm of insecurity of any hue. No Administration in Nigeria’s recent history has provided the security agencies with the hardware needed to tackle insecurity as that of President Buhari, in addition to raising the morale of our security men and women.”
