TheCable

Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment, says though the opposition claims that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to deliver on his promises, his administration has reduced Boko Haram to “almost nothing”.

Speaking in an interview he granted Trust Television on Monday, Keyamo, spokesman of the Bola Tinubu Campaign Council, said the Buhari administration achieved some success in curbing the activities of Boko Haram by collaborating with neighbouring countries.

Recently, the president came under criticism for approving the purchases of vehicles for Niger Republic worth over a billion naira.

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, said “Nigeria has had to support its neighbours especially the immediate neighbours to enhance their capacity to secure their countries as it relates to us.”

The minister said when Buhari assumed power in 2015, Boko Haram had more than 14 LGAs under its control.

“The cliche that the government has failed has become a song that the opposition has virtually rammed down the throats of everybody without looking at the details of what we have done,” the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain said.

“We inherited the Boko Haram problem. At that time, they had taken over more than 14 local governments in the north-east and hoisted their flags.

“We inherited the farmers-herders crisis that had been going on even before Obasanjo’s time. Boko Haram has not been totally wiped out but it has reduced significantly because we constructively engaged our neighbours.

“We reduced them to almost nothing.”