[dropcap]D[/dropcap]uring a recent interview with Al Jazeera, President Muhammadu Buhari in response to a question alluding to his failure to vanquish Boko haram from Nigeria’s territory, said, “I have not failed, I have not failed, I have not failed. When we came in Boko Haram was effectively in 14 local governments. Nigeria has 774 local governments. They hoist their flags and they said they had a certain caliphate but today they no longer hold any local government.”
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“They have reverted to improvised explosive devices blowing soft targets, and that will be a kind of terrorism which will be difficult to eliminate because it is technological, but they cannot hold any local government again. They are using technology but they cannot carry out organised attacks, overrun police post, attack military installations, they cannot do that now.”
However in response to a question during a US Senate Hearing today, General David Rodriguez, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) replied, “Actually sir, Boko Haram does hold some significant territory in Northern Nigeria…”
It has reached a point where President Buhari and or any member of his administration must be hooked to a lie detector machine during public pronouncements, to enable us determine when to believe them. This is truly sad!
Edward Oparaoji is a professor of pharmacy and chairman, Nigerian-American Leadership Council, a Washington DC Based think-tank. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Trent, one of the most influential online newspapers in Nigeria. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
