President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration spent over $1 billion on equipment needed to recover territories in the North-East taken by Boko Haram.
“When I assumed power in 2015, Boko Haram held about two thirds of Borno State, half of Yobe State, and a couple of Local Government Areas in Adamawa State, all in the North-East of Nigeria,” the President said on Tuesday during an address at the African Conference for Peace 2023 in Mauritania.
“We have been able to retrieve these swathes of territories by investing over a $1 billion dollars to acquire hard and soft ware weaponry from the US and other friendly countries to carry out sustained operations against insurgency since 2015.”
President Muhammadu Buhari receives the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum with “Award for Strengthening Peace in Africa” at the African Conference for Peace 2023 in Mauritania on January 17th, 2023.
According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President also noted that Nigeria continues to engage bilaterally and multilaterally to comprehensively win the war against the insurgency and other related terror groups through kinetic and non-kinetic approaches.
Buhari, who was honoured by the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum with ‘Award for Strengthening Peace in Africa’, stated that Nigeria and other regional bodies in Africa and the rest of the world are working assiduously to deal with existential threats to the very existence of humanity.
“Our Armed Forces and those of our partners in the Multinational Joint Task Force (consisting of Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Benin Republic and Nigeria) continue to demonstrate great bravery while paying the ultimate price in securing our collective freedom.
“Despite the difficult times we face, we continue to spend very scarce and lean resources to ensure that we have a well-resourced military force to take on this task.
“Ideally, these are resources that could be spent on Education, Healthcare, infrastructure and other social services, but without peace, we have learnt the hard way that our children cannot go to school or seek good healthcare,” the President stated.
Channels
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.