I won’t resign because of Boko Haram —Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has revealed how he plans to
rescue the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in April last year in
Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram.
He has also vowed that he would not resign if by December his
government is unable to defeat Boko Haram.
Buhari told the Doha-based Aljazeera television in an interview
aired on Friday evening that he would negotiate with Boko
Haram to bring back the Chibok girls.
It has been 18 months since more than 200 schoolgirls were
kidnapped by Boko Haram from the remote town of Chibok in
Borno State. President Buhari has pledged to defeat the armed
group by December and is willing to negotiate to secure the girls’
release.
“[Boko Haram has] to prove to us that they are alive, they are
well, and then we can…negotiate with them.”
“We said it and we meant it. If we are satisfied that the girls are
alive,” the president adds.
On what the Nigerian government is willing to offer the armed
group, Buhari says “it will depend on the leadership of Boko
Haram”.
When asked whether he would offer financial payments, or a
prisoner release, to Boko Haram in return for the girls, Buhari did
not rule out either option. “Well it depends on the negotiations
with the leadership of Boko Haram.”
The president pledged to defeat Boko Haram by the end of 2015
and told Aljazeera: “As soon as the rainy season ends, which is
by the end of the year […] Boko Haram will virtually be out of
their main stronghold and that will be the end of it [….] Attacks
by Boko Haram on townships, on military installations, will
certainly stop.”
If Boko Haram isn’t defeated by December, however, Buhari
said he “will not resign”.
“I will be determined to stay and fight it out.”
The president claimed not to have seen the Amnesty
International report from June 2015,‘Nigeria: Stars on their
shoulders: Blood on their hands’, in which the human-rights
group documented abuses, torture and unlawful killings by the
Nigerian armed forces and urged the government to prosecute a
group of officers and senior commanders. “I haven’t received
that report personally,” said Buhari. “If I get those documents… I
assure you that I will take action as Commander in Chief.”
In the past, Buhari has been quoted as saying he supports “the
total implementation of the sharia in the country” but he told
Aljazeera that “Nigerian law does not allow for” so-called sharia
punishments, such as stonings and amputations, adding: “I
cannot change it. I haven’t been voted by [a] majority of
Nigerians to change Nigerian constitution.”
Asked about his record as a military dictator in the mid-1980s,
and the alleged human-rights abuses which occurred on his
watch, Buhari said: “If there is any injustice that can be proved
against me when I was there, I will gladly apologize.” The
president refused, however, to concede that his now-notorious
‘war against indiscipline’ in the 1980s featured any such
“injustice”.