Federal Government will sustain the ongoing onslaught against the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, no matter what it will cost until when peace and tranquility return to the northern part of Nigeria.
President Goodlcuk Jonathan again made this declaration on Sunday while fielding questions from journalists on the sideline of the ongoing Special Summit of the African Union holding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Jonathan said: “The excesses of Boko Haram must stop.
“That is the decision of this present government now.
“It must stop.
“Whatever it will cost the government, it must stop.
“Niger Republic had been relatively calm although they have been noticing the movement because it is a general area from Mali, Niger, Chad to Nigeria but because Nigeria is fairly big, we now said ‘no, this must stop.’
“They are now moving.
“Central Africa, North Africa, West Africa, East Africa is not also safe.
“Even in Ethiopia here, there were a lot of terrorist activities before but it is now coming down.
“Same with Somalia.
“So, it is only southern Africa that is relatively peaceful in terms of terror.
“It is a serious business.
“That it why all presidents and heads of government on this continent must come together to fight, otherwise they will create more problems, especially for countries that cannot contain them.
“Luckily, Nigeria is fairly rugged, fairly robust.
“So, we can confront it and we are confronting it now because we can no longer watch people being killed and it must stop.”
A very determined Jonathan also said that the government has the wherewithal to contain the reign of terror in the north.
He expressed delight that the emergency rule that is in place in Borno, Yobe Adamawa States was already yielding fruits.
According to him, government would tackle the insurgency in terms of immediate, medium and long term approaches, adding that as a short term measure, the military intervention was compulsory.
He added: “For the short term, of course, there must be military intervention, we must beef up security, we must change the security architecture to make sure that we detect that something is about to happen before it happens so that we will be able to stop it.
“We have stopped a number of incidents in the country.
“It is just that the few that happened affect life and whenever life is affected, you will not even think that somebody is doing anything.
“That is why recently, I even had to declare a state of emergency in three states so that we go all out to make sure that we seize these weapons.
“We must comb the whole place to seize all these weapons and so on.
“A lot of free weapons come in because of the Libya crisis.
“We must seize them.
“They are illegal weapons and must be seized and you cannot do that without declaring a state of emergency to enable the military enter any house, whether it is a residential building, it is a church, a mosque, a shrine, anywhere, hotel, anything that we suspect.
“We will be able to enter and seize these weapons.
“In the short term, it is to seize these weapons.
“That is why those three states we have the worst cases, we declared a state of emergency.
“By the time we finish combing, we would have not just stopped it there but we would have seized most of the weapons they are using.
“That is the short term.”
In the medium term, President Jonathan said priority would be given to education in the north, noting that the parts of the country where there are prevalence of Boko Haram activities have the highest rate of school dropouts.
Meanwhile, contrary to report being circulated online, President Jonathan did not go missing as at the time he was scheduled to address the AU Assembly, his Media Adviser, Reuben Abati, has said.
Abati said: “It is perfectly normal for Presidents to meet on the sidelines of any international meeting, and as the AU plenary went on, many Presidents stepped out to hold bilateral meetings and returned to the hall.
“Where they are listed to make a statement in a plenary session and as it happened in our case, the President had gone to attend a meeting on the sidelines, the minister sitting in for the President can ask for a different slot to enable his principal return to the hall to make the statement.
“Where he does not do this, he may opt to present the country’s statement. It was not only Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru who presented the country statement on behalf of their principals.
“So, as you can see, there is nothing amiss here. President Jonathan was perfectly in order. He did not abandon his duty post. He was in fact busy at work on behalf of Nigerians. I see the mischief that has suddenly erupted around this matter as a classic case of much ado about nothing.
“President Jonathan is an accomplished diplomat; under his watch, Nigeria’s relationship with other countries has continued to grow strong. We are witnessing under this administration, a truly golden and glorious moment in Nigeria’s foreign policy process, an achievement which President Jonathan cherishes.”
Jonathan said: “The excesses of Boko Haram must stop.
“That is the decision of this present government now.
“It must stop.
“Whatever it will cost the government, it must stop.
“Niger Republic had been relatively calm although they have been noticing the movement because it is a general area from Mali, Niger, Chad to Nigeria but because Nigeria is fairly big, we now said ‘no, this must stop.’
“They are now moving.
“Central Africa, North Africa, West Africa, East Africa is not also safe.
“Even in Ethiopia here, there were a lot of terrorist activities before but it is now coming down.
“Same with Somalia.
“So, it is only southern Africa that is relatively peaceful in terms of terror.
“It is a serious business.
“That it why all presidents and heads of government on this continent must come together to fight, otherwise they will create more problems, especially for countries that cannot contain them.
“Luckily, Nigeria is fairly rugged, fairly robust.
“So, we can confront it and we are confronting it now because we can no longer watch people being killed and it must stop.”
A very determined Jonathan also said that the government has the wherewithal to contain the reign of terror in the north.
He expressed delight that the emergency rule that is in place in Borno, Yobe Adamawa States was already yielding fruits.
According to him, government would tackle the insurgency in terms of immediate, medium and long term approaches, adding that as a short term measure, the military intervention was compulsory.
He added: “For the short term, of course, there must be military intervention, we must beef up security, we must change the security architecture to make sure that we detect that something is about to happen before it happens so that we will be able to stop it.
“We have stopped a number of incidents in the country.
“It is just that the few that happened affect life and whenever life is affected, you will not even think that somebody is doing anything.
“That is why recently, I even had to declare a state of emergency in three states so that we go all out to make sure that we seize these weapons.
“We must comb the whole place to seize all these weapons and so on.
“A lot of free weapons come in because of the Libya crisis.
“We must seize them.
“They are illegal weapons and must be seized and you cannot do that without declaring a state of emergency to enable the military enter any house, whether it is a residential building, it is a church, a mosque, a shrine, anywhere, hotel, anything that we suspect.
“We will be able to enter and seize these weapons.
“In the short term, it is to seize these weapons.
“That is why those three states we have the worst cases, we declared a state of emergency.
“By the time we finish combing, we would have not just stopped it there but we would have seized most of the weapons they are using.
“That is the short term.”
In the medium term, President Jonathan said priority would be given to education in the north, noting that the parts of the country where there are prevalence of Boko Haram activities have the highest rate of school dropouts.
Meanwhile, contrary to report being circulated online, President Jonathan did not go missing as at the time he was scheduled to address the AU Assembly, his Media Adviser, Reuben Abati, has said.
Abati said: “It is perfectly normal for Presidents to meet on the sidelines of any international meeting, and as the AU plenary went on, many Presidents stepped out to hold bilateral meetings and returned to the hall.
“Where they are listed to make a statement in a plenary session and as it happened in our case, the President had gone to attend a meeting on the sidelines, the minister sitting in for the President can ask for a different slot to enable his principal return to the hall to make the statement.
“Where he does not do this, he may opt to present the country’s statement. It was not only Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru who presented the country statement on behalf of their principals.
“So, as you can see, there is nothing amiss here. President Jonathan was perfectly in order. He did not abandon his duty post. He was in fact busy at work on behalf of Nigerians. I see the mischief that has suddenly erupted around this matter as a classic case of much ado about nothing.
“President Jonathan is an accomplished diplomat; under his watch, Nigeria’s relationship with other countries has continued to grow strong. We are witnessing under this administration, a truly golden and glorious moment in Nigeria’s foreign policy process, an achievement which President Jonathan cherishes.”
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