Buhari Stopped Boko Haram From Taking More Territories - APC Chairman

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in apparent defence of President Muhammadu Buhari over claims in certain quarters that under his watch, insurgency has escalated, said rather, the insurgents have been prevented from taking territories unlike what they did under the last administration.



Chief Oyegun, who was a guest on ‘Osasu Show’, a private television programme in Abuja said it was unfortunate that the level of bombings in recent times have escalated but maintained that it was one of the desperate moves by the insurgents to create panic since they could no longer be confined to holding a part of the country to ransom as was the case when they were in control of several local governments under the erstwhile Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“It is the most difficult thing to contain in the immediate term but the government is working very intensively to match this change of tactics by Boko Haram. Don’t forget they started by bombings, then when they saw that they could hold territories, they shifted to wanting to create their own country within a county. That has been the movement. But now that they have been contained and driven out of holding territories, they have now gone back to the original tactics that they started with; that is where the new confrontations is. We are relying intensively on intelligence and trying to debrief minds.” He said it is an amazement that young people would agree to blow up themselves in bombs.

On the delay in the appointment of ministers, he said it was better to delay and be tagged, ‘Mr Go Slow’ than to progress in errors as was the case in the past. According to him, President Buhari has a reputation which he would not want to tarnished by anything, the reason for which he is taking his time to ensure that he picks the best hands available. He said Nigerians should watch out for changes three months after the composition of the cabinet. He said even though people expect much, it requires gradual planning of which the president has started judging from the international rating Nigeria has enjoyed since Buhari became president.

He said those members of his party who fragrantly violated the party’s principle should expect what he called ‘political spanking’ because every political party has a set of rules that all members who used its platform to aspire into any position must subscribe to.

“Political spanking, yes, there will be. Nothing is ruled out at the end of the day. Persons that were promoted, so to speak, by the party and turned against the party, if they persist something, of course, has to be done. There must be consequences otherwise no organisation can survive if everybody can do precisely what they like, there must be consequences,” he said.