25th February, 2014
Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
President Goodluck Jonathan in his latest media chat lashed out at Governor Kashim Shettima, whose Borno State in North East Nigeria has been under a series of attacks by members of insurgent group, Boko Haram, resulting into loss of hundreds of lives in recent weeks.
While reacting to recent Boko Haram attacks and the Governor’s recent assertions that the military appeared incapable of reining in the insurgents, the President said the Borno State Chief executive was wrong.
“If the Governor of Borno State thinks that the Nigerian forces are not doing anything, he should tell Nigerians and I will pull out all the military personnel there for only one month. Let’s see whether he will stay in that his government house,” the President said in a tone that observers said was totally lacking in empathy.
The President however denied that his government was planning to replace the Governor Shettima with a military administrator in further implementation of State of Emergency.
He said the military has continued to fine tune the strategies to fight the insurgent group even as he added that all arms of the Nigeria security forces are involved in the war against Boko Haram.
The President said unlike the former Niger Delta militants, negotiating with members of the insurgent group to end their activities has been difficult because they are faceless.
He added that the Tanimu Turaki Committee he set up to negotiate with the insurgent group is still on ground and expressed hope that Nigeria will get over the problem of the insurgent group very soon.