Nigeria’s defence minister Bashir Magashi has applauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts in cutting the vicious Boko Haram sect down to size since he took up the reins of power in 2015.
Mr. Magashi, a retired major-general from the Nigerian Army, falsely claimed on Channels Thursday that the dreaded terrorists have been subdued and dislodged from their strongholds in the troubled Northeast.
“No piece of land is occupied by Boko Haram in Borno state,” the defence minister said. “In Borno, about 20 local governments were under capture by Boko Haram, but as soon as Buhari came, they were all subdued and we took over all these things and we even said we technically defeated this Boko Haram.”
Mr. Magashi’s glowing appraisal of the Buhari administration comes nearly two weeks after scores of farmers were slaughtered on a rice field in Borno’s Zabarmari village by Boko Haram insurgents.
In an apparent attempt to deflect responsibility for the carnage, a presidential spokesman Garba Shehu had blamed the slain farmers for failing to obtain military clearance before resuming farming activities in the area, all but contradicting the Buhari administration’s claim that the Nigerian military had seized control of the volatile region ravaged by decade-long terrorist and insurgent violence.
Mr. Magashi, however, insists that national security has improved under President Buhari.
“The problem of this country is that we always forget too soon. Look in 2015 backwards. Everywhere in Nigeria in those years, you find that there were commotions, no security, people can’t move. Even in Abuja, there were bombings,” the minister said.
Mr. Magashi attributed the widespread killings by Boko Haram to a desperate attempt by the terrorists to seek global attention.
“The only thing normally with the kind of insurgent operation is that they want to surprise you, embarrass you, and do whatever they think that would attract international news or the national news or cause commotion within the environment they operate,” he averred.
Nigerian authorities have admitted helplessness in containing insurgency, which has tarried since 2009, leaving thousands killed and millions displaced.
Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai has predicted that terrorism may persist in the country for another 20 years.