President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that his administration intends to persuade Boko Haram members to allow peace reign in order to end the insurgency which has ravaged Northeastern Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Nigerians to pray for troops fighting Boko Haram in the northeast of the country
The president according to The Punch, made this disclosure on Friday, December 25, at the presidential villa in Abuja during the visit of a delegation led by the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammadu Bello who paid him Christmas homage.
On how he intends to persuade the sect to embrace peace, Buhari said “this government is determined to make sure that we persuade them (Boko Haram) if they can be persuaded, we will use government institutions to persuade them to allow peace to reign”.
He however did not go into details on how he intends broker a peace deal with the sect which has been unleashing violence in some parts of the country.
Buhari said the country’s three biggest problems are security, unemployment of youths as well as bribery and corruption. He stressed that security plays an important role in the development of any society, noting that that there could not be any development without security.
He commended security agencies for their efforts to stamp out insurgency and called on Nigerians to continue to pray for them.
On those who have been displaced by the Boko Haram menace, he lamented that about “two million people who are Internally Displaced Persons and 70 per cent are women and 70 per cent of them are children, some of them are orphans; they grew up not knowing their parents, tradition or culture”.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammadu Bello, extolled Christians and Muslims to live in peace. He alluded to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ which was coming a day after the celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammed as a unique message to Christians and Muslims.
Other members of the delegation included the Senate President Bukola Saraki and some residents of residents of the Federal Capital Territory.
Meanwhile, President Buhari in an interview with the BBC has said Boko Haram could no longer mount “conventional attacks” against security forces or population centres.
He said the sect had been weakened to fighting with improvised explosives devices and remained a force only in its heartland of Borno state, the leader of the nation said.
In the same vein, the minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,has urged journalists on how to report the news when stating that Nigeria is at war, saying that Nigeria army has met the deadline on Boko Haram.
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