Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has echoed the stance of both President Goodluck Jonathan and the nation’s service chiefs that Boko Haram inusurgents will not be allowed to hold territories within the country again.
Chidoka made the remark when he appeared on a television program, HardTalk on the British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC), hosted by Sarah Montague.
The Minister further refuted claims by an American official which appeared in the New York Times that the Nigerian military was in tatters, bringing to mind the numerous peace keeping missions that have been carried out by the touted “incapable” Nigerian military, stating that the claims were mere propaganda.
He said: “Its pure propaganda. If the Nigerian military was that (in tatters), at what point did the Americans realise that?
“At the time we went to Sierra Leone did they know that? At the time we went to Mali to help them sort out the Mali crisis, did they think that the Nigerian soldiers were in tatters?
“The Nigerian military is a conventional military, it is a strong military, it has shown its strength all over Africa and nobody can intimidate it.”
On the Chibok girls, the minister said the Nigerian military is currently dismantling the enemy lines and are hopeful of finding the girls in the course of their operations, noting that the girls might have been dispersed in several directions, explaining to the TV host that Borno State had twice the land mass of Scotland.
Watch part of the interview below:
