MORE than 513 days after the abduction of
the Chibok Secondary School girls in Borno State,
hopes of rescuing the girls en bloc vaporized as
President Muhammadu Buhari, Tuesday, disclosed
that they have been dispersed and some of them,
especially Christians, married off against their faith.
President Buhari made the comments in an interview
on BBC Hausa service on Tuesday.
Asked if he received any information about the
whereabouts of the kidnapped Chibok girls, he said:
“They (Boko Haram insurgents) have scattered them,
and (they) are being guarded at dispersed locations.
Most of the girls are Christians and were forced to
embrace Islam. The sect’s cruel leaders have married
some of the girls, obviously against their wish. Others
have been left to practice their religion but their
condition could hardly be ascertained.
“Both ground and air security personnel I n the
Sambisa forest could spot where the girls are, but
since the insurgents have also kidnapped housewives
and other women, no one could say whether they
mixed them or how they dispersed them. But efforts
are being intensified and as people know, the three
neighbouring governments of Cameroon, Chad, and
Niger are helping us since these suicide bombers are
now going to their areas and detonating the bombs in
mosques and other places.”
On his efforts to check the Boko Haram insurgency,
Buhari said: “One of the decisions we took soon after
we came into office was to change the service chiefs
and we overhauled the infantry. We mandated the
military chiefs to change the infantry, re-train them,
equip them with adequate weapons and put trained
and qualified commanders for the soldiers. The three
states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa know the
successes being recorded now.”
Locals must help fight Boko Haram
Told that despite this success of the military, suicide
bombers have continued to strike, the President
fingered the international dimension of the
insurgency and stressed the need for the support of
local people in the war.
“Boko Haram members have pledged their allegiance
to ISIS — an insurgent group from the Middle East,
with enough money and its members were
brainwashed into killing innocent people, including
Al-Shabbab around Somalia, and Al-Qa’eda from
Yemen, plus the ISIS itself around Syria and Iraq. If
you can recall, ISIS even went to mosques in Saudi
Arabia and killed people on about three to five
occasions not to talk of doing same in Nigeria. So, the
biggest problem here is how they brainwashed young
people, including young girls, who go to mosques,
churches, markets, motor parks and detonate bombs,
kill themselves and other civilians. How we are going
to overcome this is going back to the traditional
security apparatus — community leaders,
neighbours, district heads, emirs, who should begin
to identify new faces in their localities and ask them
where they come from and what brought them. They
can identify them in either markets, or any other
place. This is what will help us in that regard so that
those planning to undertake suicide missions could
be identified and they would be dealt with
appropriately,” he said.
I appointed people I can trust
In the interview, Buhari also defended his recent
appointments criticized by many Nigerians as
lopsided, saying he nominated people he could trust,
and who had worked with him for years.
An overwhelming majority of the President’s senior
appointees are from the northern region of the
country, where he comes from, and about 33 per
cent of the appointments is from his native Katsina
State. The South East has no appointee yet.
Asked why his appointments are lopsided, he said:
“This is the nature of Nigerian politics. If they will do
justice to me, as an elected Nigerian president, let
them look at the Constitution a Nigerian president
works with; there are people who will closely work
with me that don’t need to be taken to the Senate. If
I select people whom I know quite well in my
political party, whom we came all the way right from
the APP, CPC and APC, and have remained together
in good or bad situation, the people I have
confidence in and I can trust them with any post, will
that amount to anything wrong? I have been with
them throughout our trying times, what then is the
reward of such dedication and suffering? They did not
defect because of positions, they did not involve
themselves in the pursuit of personal gains, and they
accepted their fate throughout our trying moments.
What is wrong if I make you the secretary (of the
federal government) because I have confidence that
things will go normal?”
NNPC, big theatre of theft
On his anti-graft war and whether he has made some
recoveries since he came to power, the President
identified the Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) as the biggest arena for stealing
the country’s funds.
His words: “The biggest area of stealing of Nigeria’s
funds was through NNPC, which is the apex oil selling
corporation. That was why we dissolved their board
and brought someone who knows the oil sector very
well, but who is not from NNPC and entrusted him
with the leadership of the NNPC. And instead of the
eight major departments, four were liquidated and
four continue to exist. This is because, for the past 10
years, the crude oil stealing has been going on using
some vessels. By law, their owners, captains and
where they are taking the crude must be known.
“So, the method for the crude oil stealing was that
those involved shipped the crude through smaller
vessels and then transfer the crude to the larger
vessels at distant locations in the ocean, before they
head to other countries. Some of them carry the
crude but later change the destination.
“Our new approach is to get support from European
countries, the US and China. Those doing the
bunkering, you need to know the amount first and
the banks they deposit the monies, etc. These are the
things we are doing currently. And you know, those
developed countries are strict on evidences and you
have to show the evidences of such cases before they
can assist you. If you recall, during the military
regimes, such people were arrested, thoroughly
interrogated and arraigned before the courts with
evidences.
“But that is impossible now. It is democracy and even
the foreign countries, where the money is being
taken to, practice democracy. The companies
involved in buying the crude and the banks that kept
the money would be identified so that we would
determine whether they are Nigerians or not;
whether the stolen crude and its quantity was actually
taken from here, sold with the Nigerian name and
how what accrued to Nigeria was diverted.
“So, the situation is a complex one, but we are
getting support from governments of those
countries, including their security agencies. When we
get the relevant documents, we would bring them
(culprits) back to our courts and try them. We would
then show the evidence to the world that the crude
oil they traded was actually stolen or shipped with
Nigerian name but later changed the papers and took
away the money, instead of depositing them into the
Central Bank of Nigeria.”
Asked when he would prosecute the looters given his
recent promise that within weeks, Nigerians would
witness the prosecution of such looters in the courts,
he responded: “Actually, we are at the verge of doing
that. I have just explained the difficulties involved. In
the past, around 1984, the process we underwent to
recover the stolen monies was different from the
one we are adopting now. It was a military regime at
that time, but now, ideologies of the countries
involved is that until you are proved guilty, you
remain innocent. And that is what we have been
trying to establish; the actual identity of the people,
where they took the crude to, did they really pay
back the money to the CBN or to the pocket of some
individuals? Was the entire crude shipped or part of
it? This is not an easy thing and we have never
realized its complexity until recently when some
foreign countries agreed to support our course.”
Appointing ministers tough
The President who reassured that his cabinet would
be in place before the end of the month, however,
disclosed that he is finding the process difficult to
finish because of the massive rot in the polity.
“The process is difficult to finish. So, we would
continue the screening to come up with people that
deserve to hold the positions. This is because, what I
see daily in terms of the damage inflicted on Nigeria
in the last 10 years is enormous. Only God knows its
magnitude,” he said.
Asked if there were names that he earlier lined up
for appointments that he later discovered their
complicity and then changed his mind, Buhari said:
‘’There are people that deserve to hold the position
because of their knowledge in either financial issues
or oil sector or even in governance. But you discover
that in one way or the other, and whether they knew
it or not, they were dragged to such unwholesome
practices. Bringing such people will be tantamount to
leaving your doors open when you have gone to rest
in your apartment. Putting such people in either
financial, petrol or works ministry would be
dangerous because behind the scene, some people
control a person. They would be dictating to them
with a threat to award them contracts.
the Chibok Secondary School girls in Borno State,
hopes of rescuing the girls en bloc vaporized as
President Muhammadu Buhari, Tuesday, disclosed
that they have been dispersed and some of them,
especially Christians, married off against their faith.
President Buhari made the comments in an interview
on BBC Hausa service on Tuesday.
Asked if he received any information about the
whereabouts of the kidnapped Chibok girls, he said:
“They (Boko Haram insurgents) have scattered them,
and (they) are being guarded at dispersed locations.
Most of the girls are Christians and were forced to
embrace Islam. The sect’s cruel leaders have married
some of the girls, obviously against their wish. Others
have been left to practice their religion but their
condition could hardly be ascertained.
“Both ground and air security personnel I n the
Sambisa forest could spot where the girls are, but
since the insurgents have also kidnapped housewives
and other women, no one could say whether they
mixed them or how they dispersed them. But efforts
are being intensified and as people know, the three
neighbouring governments of Cameroon, Chad, and
Niger are helping us since these suicide bombers are
now going to their areas and detonating the bombs in
mosques and other places.”
On his efforts to check the Boko Haram insurgency,
Buhari said: “One of the decisions we took soon after
we came into office was to change the service chiefs
and we overhauled the infantry. We mandated the
military chiefs to change the infantry, re-train them,
equip them with adequate weapons and put trained
and qualified commanders for the soldiers. The three
states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa know the
successes being recorded now.”
Locals must help fight Boko Haram
Told that despite this success of the military, suicide
bombers have continued to strike, the President
fingered the international dimension of the
insurgency and stressed the need for the support of
local people in the war.
“Boko Haram members have pledged their allegiance
to ISIS — an insurgent group from the Middle East,
with enough money and its members were
brainwashed into killing innocent people, including
Al-Shabbab around Somalia, and Al-Qa’eda from
Yemen, plus the ISIS itself around Syria and Iraq. If
you can recall, ISIS even went to mosques in Saudi
Arabia and killed people on about three to five
occasions not to talk of doing same in Nigeria. So, the
biggest problem here is how they brainwashed young
people, including young girls, who go to mosques,
churches, markets, motor parks and detonate bombs,
kill themselves and other civilians. How we are going
to overcome this is going back to the traditional
security apparatus — community leaders,
neighbours, district heads, emirs, who should begin
to identify new faces in their localities and ask them
where they come from and what brought them. They
can identify them in either markets, or any other
place. This is what will help us in that regard so that
those planning to undertake suicide missions could
be identified and they would be dealt with
appropriately,” he said.
I appointed people I can trust
In the interview, Buhari also defended his recent
appointments criticized by many Nigerians as
lopsided, saying he nominated people he could trust,
and who had worked with him for years.
An overwhelming majority of the President’s senior
appointees are from the northern region of the
country, where he comes from, and about 33 per
cent of the appointments is from his native Katsina
State. The South East has no appointee yet.
Asked why his appointments are lopsided, he said:
“This is the nature of Nigerian politics. If they will do
justice to me, as an elected Nigerian president, let
them look at the Constitution a Nigerian president
works with; there are people who will closely work
with me that don’t need to be taken to the Senate. If
I select people whom I know quite well in my
political party, whom we came all the way right from
the APP, CPC and APC, and have remained together
in good or bad situation, the people I have
confidence in and I can trust them with any post, will
that amount to anything wrong? I have been with
them throughout our trying times, what then is the
reward of such dedication and suffering? They did not
defect because of positions, they did not involve
themselves in the pursuit of personal gains, and they
accepted their fate throughout our trying moments.
What is wrong if I make you the secretary (of the
federal government) because I have confidence that
things will go normal?”
NNPC, big theatre of theft
On his anti-graft war and whether he has made some
recoveries since he came to power, the President
identified the Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) as the biggest arena for stealing
the country’s funds.
His words: “The biggest area of stealing of Nigeria’s
funds was through NNPC, which is the apex oil selling
corporation. That was why we dissolved their board
and brought someone who knows the oil sector very
well, but who is not from NNPC and entrusted him
with the leadership of the NNPC. And instead of the
eight major departments, four were liquidated and
four continue to exist. This is because, for the past 10
years, the crude oil stealing has been going on using
some vessels. By law, their owners, captains and
where they are taking the crude must be known.
“So, the method for the crude oil stealing was that
those involved shipped the crude through smaller
vessels and then transfer the crude to the larger
vessels at distant locations in the ocean, before they
head to other countries. Some of them carry the
crude but later change the destination.
“Our new approach is to get support from European
countries, the US and China. Those doing the
bunkering, you need to know the amount first and
the banks they deposit the monies, etc. These are the
things we are doing currently. And you know, those
developed countries are strict on evidences and you
have to show the evidences of such cases before they
can assist you. If you recall, during the military
regimes, such people were arrested, thoroughly
interrogated and arraigned before the courts with
evidences.
“But that is impossible now. It is democracy and even
the foreign countries, where the money is being
taken to, practice democracy. The companies
involved in buying the crude and the banks that kept
the money would be identified so that we would
determine whether they are Nigerians or not;
whether the stolen crude and its quantity was actually
taken from here, sold with the Nigerian name and
how what accrued to Nigeria was diverted.
“So, the situation is a complex one, but we are
getting support from governments of those
countries, including their security agencies. When we
get the relevant documents, we would bring them
(culprits) back to our courts and try them. We would
then show the evidence to the world that the crude
oil they traded was actually stolen or shipped with
Nigerian name but later changed the papers and took
away the money, instead of depositing them into the
Central Bank of Nigeria.”
Asked when he would prosecute the looters given his
recent promise that within weeks, Nigerians would
witness the prosecution of such looters in the courts,
he responded: “Actually, we are at the verge of doing
that. I have just explained the difficulties involved. In
the past, around 1984, the process we underwent to
recover the stolen monies was different from the
one we are adopting now. It was a military regime at
that time, but now, ideologies of the countries
involved is that until you are proved guilty, you
remain innocent. And that is what we have been
trying to establish; the actual identity of the people,
where they took the crude to, did they really pay
back the money to the CBN or to the pocket of some
individuals? Was the entire crude shipped or part of
it? This is not an easy thing and we have never
realized its complexity until recently when some
foreign countries agreed to support our course.”
Appointing ministers tough
The President who reassured that his cabinet would
be in place before the end of the month, however,
disclosed that he is finding the process difficult to
finish because of the massive rot in the polity.
“The process is difficult to finish. So, we would
continue the screening to come up with people that
deserve to hold the positions. This is because, what I
see daily in terms of the damage inflicted on Nigeria
in the last 10 years is enormous. Only God knows its
magnitude,” he said.
Asked if there were names that he earlier lined up
for appointments that he later discovered their
complicity and then changed his mind, Buhari said:
‘’There are people that deserve to hold the position
because of their knowledge in either financial issues
or oil sector or even in governance. But you discover
that in one way or the other, and whether they knew
it or not, they were dragged to such unwholesome
practices. Bringing such people will be tantamount to
leaving your doors open when you have gone to rest
in your apartment. Putting such people in either
financial, petrol or works ministry would be
dangerous because behind the scene, some people
control a person. They would be dictating to them
with a threat to award them contracts.
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