Five Years After Vowing To Crush Boko Haram, Buhari Declares Fresh War On Insurgents

It’s been more than five years since President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to crush Boko Haram and promised to “soon” make insurgency a thing of the past in the country.

After winning election in 2015, Buhari had in his acceptance speech assured citizens that, “…Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror and bring back peace and normalcy to all the affected areas.”

Buhari, a retired major general, had in his inauguration speech in 2015, also promised to relocate the military’s “command and control centre” from Abuja to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, until insurgency was completely rooted out of the country.

But five years after these promises were made, there’s no gainsaying that the Buhari administration is still struggling to defeat Boko Haram.

Saturday’s beheading of over 40 farmers at Zabarmari, a village in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, attests to the fact that the war against terrorism in the country is not yet over.

Buhari, in his second reaction to the massacre of the rice farmers by Boko Haram, has declared a fresh war on insurgency in Nigeria.

The president revealed in a Facebook post on Monday that he had issued marching orders to Nigerian troops to, “take the fight to the insurgents, not on a one-off, but on a continuous basis, until we root out the terrorists.”

He noted that the security of lives and property was the most important responsibility of any government, saying “Everything is secondary when security is at stake.”

Buhari had noted in his first reaction to the killings that his administration had provided the military with all the support they needed to combat terrorism.

He, however, said in the Facebook post that he would ensure that more resources were made available to the military and other security agencies, “to prosecute the war against terrorism.”

Buhari added, “We will intensify our cooperation with neighbouring countries on bilateral and multilateral levels, to ensure that there is no hiding place for the terrorists.

“As I noted earlier, the massacre by Boko Haram in Zabarmari is nothing short of senseless, barbaric, gruesome and cowardly. It reinforces our resolve to root out all forms of insurgency and insecurity not just in Borno but everywhere across Nigeria.”