Commentators who describe the world as a global village are right. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, who announced his re-election bid last Monday in Abuja, has been explaining the reasons for his decision in London. On Wednesday, he explained that he wants to remain in office because Nigerians appreciate his government.
President Buhari made the comments in London at a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, where he is scheduled for talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May later this month. The 75-year-old retired General, who rarely speaks publicly at length, then turned to the issue of security.
Apart from fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the northeast zone, Nigeria is battling to contain bloody clashes between murdering nomadic herdsmen and farmers that have led to the death of hundreds of innocent villagers across the country. The President claimed that the problem has been “made worse by the influx of armed gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African sub-region”.
The Nigerian leader disclosed what many had not known, “These gunmen were trained and armed by Muammar Gadafi (Moamer Kadhafi) of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them fighting with Boko Haram”.
In February, Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped 110 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Dapchi in Yobe state.
105 of the school girls were returned by the jihadists following what President Buhari called quiet negotiations between moderate Islamists and the government.
Five others are believed to have been killed in the initial stages of the kidnapping, while one other, Leah Sharibu, is still being held for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. The President said, “We are managing the matter quietly. Making noise would not help”.
Buhari made history in 2015 when he became the first Nigerian to defeat an incumbent candidate, amid anger over the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency and rampant corruption in West Africa’s largest economy.
