Buhari on Insecurity: “I’ll treat IPOB in the language they understand”; unemployment, poverty behind Boko Haram
The Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria is largely fuelled by youth unemployment and poverty, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said.
Buhari said this in an interview with Arise TV aired on Thursday.
The Nigerian leader said he believes his government has done a lot to fight the terrorists but the problem in the “North-East is very difficult.”
He said he believes the majority of the Boko Haram members are Nigerians after being told so by the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum.
Buhari also described the Indigenous People of Biafra clamouring for secession as a dot in a circle that has nowhere to go.
The President said this in an interview with Arise TV broadcast on Thursday. He said, That IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere.
“And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about.
“In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them.”
Buhari also said that he has been assured by the elderly people and the youths from the South-South part of the country that their region has no intention of seceding.
He said IPOB will not have access to anywhere even if they eventually secede from the country.
The President then reiterated his statement that IPOB members will be treated in the “language that they understand”.
“I was encouraged by what I heard, nobody told me. Two statements from the south-south. One by the elderly people, they said this time around there would be no (secession). And again the youth made the same statement; such encouragement,” Buhari said.
IPOB has been agitating for the secession of the South-East.
