President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that the
Administration is taking the necessary measures to end the suicide
bombings by Boko Haram terrorists, saying the attacks are like the last
kicks of a dying horse.
Speaking at the commissioning of the Pulaaku Radio in Yola, Adamawa
State, on Sunday, the President, who was represented by the Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said Boko Haram has been
massively degraded and its surviving members put on the run.
”Instead of being hunters, they are now the hunted. In their
desperation to stay relevant, they have resorted to the wicked and
dastardly act of using innocent under-aged children to carry out suicide
bomb attacks. But what we are witnessing now are the last kicks of a
dying horse. Yes, these kicks may be dangerous, but they don’t last
long. Progressively, they become weaker and weaker until the horse
finally dies,” he said
President Buhari said the war against Boko Haram has moved to the
next phase, which is intelligence-driven, with a view to ending the
suicide bombings.
”That is why I approved the establishment of an intelligence fusion
centre in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to gather and share
intelligence among security agencies in the country. This will go a long
way in ending this campaign of suicide bombing,” he said
The President said the new phase would depend largely on information
and communication, and therefore rallied the media, especially radio and
television stations, to play their part in enlightening the populace.
”We are building on the nationwide campaign we launched last year,
with the payoff line: ‘If you see something, say something’. It simply
means that we need everyone to be involved in getting the
necessary information to tackle the terrorists. They are not ghosts, and
some of them live among us. We must all, therefore, support our gallant
troops, many of whom have made the supreme sacrifice in this war, by
providing information that can help rid our communities of terrorists.
It is important for the media – especially radio and television – to
continue to play their part in this war, by offering their platforms to
communicate useful information to the populace.
As part of our
sensitization campaign, which is still running on national radio and
television as we speak, we put out those little signs that
give up the terrorists, and which the people must watch out for. Help us communicate this information to the people,” he said
The President described as most auspicious the timing of the
commissioning of the radio station, and implored it as well as other
radio stations to donate airtime for the national sensitization
campaign.