Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, November 15,
said that if he were the president of Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency
in the country would not take place.
Atiku made this known in Yola while speaking at the distribution of
relief materials to over 50,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at
American University of Nigeria (AUN) drawn from all over IDPs camps
across the state to commemorate his 70th birthday celebrations.
He said:
“If you recalled,while we are in office in 2002, such a small up raising
,very similar to this Boko Haram,reared their head in Yobe
State,then,we smashed it immediately. So I think it requires a steadfast
leadership,a leadership that is decisive.”
Atiku stated that, he would have used all resources at his disposal to
ensure that Boko Haram did not take place in any part of North-Eastern
Nigeria and anywhere else in the country. He said he would have made
sure Nigerians never heard anything about it again, until he leaves
government, adding that he regretted that Boko Haram took over seven of
the 21 local government area of Adamawa.
The former vice president noted that the Adamawa Peace Initiative was
put together to ensure peaceful coexistence of Adamawa State and its
people. The relief materials he brought to the IDP were distributed at
Saint Theresa Catholic Church, the Jamatu Nasrul Islam Headquarters and
American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola.
The President of the ‘American University of Nigeria’ (AUN) Margie
Ensign, lauded Atiku’s charitable efforts at sustaining Adamawa Peace
Initiative for almost five years since creation;
“Nobody ever assisted us like you do within the period under review, in
providing succour to the vulnerable like Atiku did,” she said.