TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says Boko Haram insurgents have shot themselves in foot, emphasising that the end of the sect is in sight.

Speaking at the 3rd Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa in Senegal, Buhari said a number of Chadians and Nigerians who were part of Boko Haram have surrendered en masse.

“About a month ago, I spoke with the President of Chad and I was pleased that a number of Chadians and Nigerians that were Boko Haram members are surrendering to him en masse,” Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, quoted Buhari to have said.

“The good news I have is that the end of the raining season has come in the north-eastern region of Nigeria. Members of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) are in their respective positions and at an agreed time they will move simultaneously and spontaneously for us to see the end of Boko Haram.

“We are now operating in the Sambisa Forest and as far as Boko Haram is concerned in the Lake Chad Basin area, I think they are done for. Those who live in the north-east know that Boko Haram is no longer holding a single territory in the 774 LGAs in Nigeria.

“But they have a system of using IEDs and they indoctrinate mostly teenage girls and send them to soft targets to churches, mosques and market places. That too is becoming very rear. I think Boko Haram shot themselves in the foot when they gave their ideology a religious connotation by killing children in their schools, people in the mosque and churches and shouting Allahu Akbar (God is great).

“This is a major contradiction as no religion advocates hurting the innocent. You can’t kill people and say Allahu Akbar. You either do not know what you are saying or you don’t believe it.”

He added that his administration was tackling unemployment by turning to agriculture and solid minerals.

“We also have the problem of unemployment in Nigeria. With a population of 180 million people of which 65 per cent are under the age of 35, young Nigerians are looking for any kind of job to survive,” he said.

“We are addressing the situation by turning to agriculture and solid minerals because we are lucky to be blessed with arable land, water and resources.”