Buhari remains only govt fighting terrorism, seeking solution to herdsmen crisis — FG

By Uthman Salami

The Federal Government has said that Buhari-led adminstration remains the only government that is genuinely fighting terrorism as well as seeking an end to the age long dispute between Farmers and Herders that has claimed many lives.

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Garba Shehu made this known through a Press Release tagged, Economist’s Flawed, Anti-Nigeria Cover: President Buhari is Strengthening Africa’s Democracy.

While explaining the role Buhari’s administration has played in pushing back terrorism, he insisted that, “It is only the Buhari administration that has now sought to intervene against the kidnapping and banditry that has been a simmering threat for far longer.

“It is only this President’s government which has taken on IPOB, the violent terrorist group which bombs police stations and offices of security agencies, while also threatening those who break their Monday-sit-ins whilst claiming the mantle of forebears who half a century ago fought a civil war.

“And it is only the Buhari leadership which has sought – ever, in over one hundred years – to identify the root causes of the herder-farmer clashes and find durable solutions.”

This statement came on the backdrop of yhe article titled, ‘The Crime Scene at the Heart of Africa,’ was published in the magazine’s October 23, 2021, issue.

It described the government of the President Muhammadu Buhari as inept and high-handed, adding that it had also failed to tackle corruption.

It also alleged that the Nigerian Army, which it described as “mighty on paper,” often sold equipment to insurgents who destabilise the nation.

While reacting, Garba Shehu explained that the “forms” may have changed but the “threats posed by each may have waxed and waned but what has been constant is that administration after administration since independence – whether military or democratic – none sought to fully address these threats to Nigeria as President Buhari’s government does now.”

He added that, “Today, the military is engaged in almost all the states of Nigeria because the President has insisted upon addressing these decade-after-decade-long issues during his time in office.

“In the North, Boko Haram members – many of whom now fight under the breakaway banner of Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) – have been pushed back.

“At the start of the President’s tenure, Boko Haram was launching attacks across the majority of the country – including in southern states and Lagos.

“Today they are cornered and confined along with their ISWAP compatriots in our country’s outermost fringes of the border, unable to spread further.

“In the South-East, IPOB – which the Economist rightly describes as ‘delusional’ – the arrest and present trial of the terrorist leader of the group is the beginning of its demise.

“The President’s administration is redoubling efforts to have IPOB rightfully designated as a terrorist group by our allies outside of Nigeria – an act which will collapse their ability to transact gains from crime and extortion in foreign currencies.

“It is important to remind the Economist and the global media that this group’s aggression and widespread presence on social media does not reflect their public support, for which they have none: all elected governors, all elected politicians and all elected state assemblies in the South-East – which IPOB claim to be part of their fantasy kingdom – reject them completely.

Faulting The Economist for its “opinionated” and report on banditry and kidnapping in the North region, “The President insisted that was the newest of the organized threat Nigeria faces to her stability.

“But this too the Economist inaccurately described: ‘bandits’ who have the resources and technology to shoot down a military fighter jet are not bandits at all – but rather highly organised crime syndicates with huge resources and weaponry.

He stressed that, “They are essentially no different to Boko Haram in this regard who are now cornered. It will take time, but the President is unwavering in his determination to collapse this challenge to public order.”

While agreeing with The Economist that Nigeria faces multiple threats that it was Buhari’s government which addressing “them concurrently, and simultaneously – when no other prior administration sought to adequately address even a single one.”

He said, “That is the difference between what has gone before and what we have now. It is why the President and his party were re-elected with’ an increased majority in national elections two years ago.”