Buhari Willing to Negotiate With Boko Haram for Chibok Girls

Buhari said the government was prepared to hold talks with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in a bid to secure the release of around 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok a year ago.

“We are still keeping our options open with Boko Haram on the condition that they have credible leaders who can tell that they have the Chibok girls”.

Despite the absence of intelligence, he said government was still making efforts to rescue the Chibok girls and would be willing to negotiate their release, but would want to make sure they are negotiating with credible leaders of the Boko Haram terror group.

The admission of a lack of intelligence on the girls’ whereabouts is the first of its kind.

Buhari, in one of his first acts after taking office in May, moved the command center to fight the group to Maiduguri to better coordinate operations and ordered the army to defeat Boko Haram by year-end.

“What of the over two million people displaced, a lot of them orphans whose fathers have been killed?” And finally, all Boko Haram can do now is to attack soft targets: “Markets, Motor Parks, Mosques and Entertainment centres, killing innocent men, women and children”, he said.

“Banning hijab is not enough”. Femi Odekunle, on Wednesday said the war on graft by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was not selective.

In response to insinuation that members of his cabinet might also be corrupt, he said, “I have been a democrat since April 2002”.

The president said he hoped to raise the industrial base to reduce reliance on imports. It has been hit hard by falling oil prices while the insurgency and restrictions on foreign exchange have deterred investors.

Asked who will present the report, Buhari said, “I expect the Kaduna State government to set up a judiciary inquiry because the group has been existing in the state for years”.

“Once you can give agricultural and solid mineral sector a boost, sharpen the processes for revenue generation and block the leakages that we know, our economy will take a leap, ” he said.

He claimed the government had evidence that past oil sales had benefitted individuals.

We have documents showing that Nigerian crude oil was diverted and proceeds from the oil were diverted to private individuals.