Hope of seeing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government end terrorism and Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria appears to have become elusive.
This is especially as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Monday told Nigerians that it is difficult to say if Boko Haram will ever be eradicated in Nigeria.
Shehu, who stated this when he spoke as a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme in Abuja, said Buhari’s government should be applauded for the efforts it has made at reducing attacks by the terrorist group in the country.
This is coming at a time Nigerian Government and the Army have constantly claimed that Boko Haram has been technically defeated, and that what is going on currently in North East is exercise to mop up remnant members of the group.
Shehu, who was told that thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) had yet to return to their homes and that attacks by the insurgents are still going on in some parts of the North-East, had said:
“Well, I can’t promise you that Boko Haram will or will not be eradicated. But it is an ongoing challenge, globally.
“Even in more advanced countries, more ‘weaponised’ nations, it is still a challenge.
“The point we are making is that the attacks you just cited are still a far cry from the enormity of those attacks we have seen in the past.
“They have been greatly minimized and they are being pushed farther away from the national population.”
On issues of proliferation of small arms in the country, a menace believed to be worsening attacks by banditry and other criminal elements, the President’s spokesman said, “Our security services are coming to terms with the fact that this (weapons) is one area they have to tackle.
“The source of weapons – whether locally manufactured or imported – must be tackled; otherwise, it will continue, because it is an oxygen to crime.
“So, we are looking into the source of the weapons. As I said, the government has identified the manufacturers and many people have been arrested along with weapons.”
