Vunderkind
Social Member
In 2013, the then National Leader for the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, heavily criticized the declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
Speaking at a Hausa program in Kaduna, he said the government's offensive against the Boko Haram Islamic sect was a grave injustice against the North.
He said the Federal Government gave special treatment to the Niger Delta militants by granting them amnesty, but the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses destroyed.
He said President Goodluck Jonathan had failed from the outset in addressing the problem of security in Nigeria. He observed that the security challenge in Nigeria began with the Niger Delta area, when politicians, trying to retain their positions, recruited youths and armed them to help them win elections through sheer brute force.
Buhari said, “What is responsible for the security situation in the country was caused by the activities of Niger Delta militants.
“Every Nigerian that is familiar with what happened knows this. The Niger Delta militants started it all. What happened is that the governors of the Niger Delta region at that time wanted to win their elections, so they recruited the youths and gave them guns and bullets and used them against their opponents to win elections by force.
“After the elections were over, they asked the boys to return the guns, the boys refused to return the guns. Because of that, the allowance that was being given to the youths by the governors during that time was stopped.
“The youths resorted to kidnapping oil workers and were collecting dollars as ransom. Now a boy of 18 to 20 years was getting about $500 in a week, why will he go to school and spend 20 years to study and then come back and get employed by government to be paid N100,000 a month; that is if he is lucky to get employment?
“So kidnapping became very rampant in the south-south and the south-east. They kidnapped people and were collecting money.
“How did Boko Haram start? We know that their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, started his militancy and the police couldn’t control them and the army was invited. He was arrested by soldiers and handed over to the police.
“The appropriate thing to do, according to the law, was for the police to carry out investigations and charge him to court for prosecution, but they killed him, his in-law was killed, they went and demolished their houses.
“Because of that, his supporters resorted to what they are doing today.
“You see in the case of the Niger Delta militants, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua sent an airplane to bring them, he sat down with them and discussed with them, they were cajoled, and they were given money and granted amnesty.
“They were trained in some skills and were given employment, but the ones in the north are being killed and their houses demolished. They are different issues, what brought this? It is injustice.”
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Source: #ThisDayLive
Dated: June 3rd, 2013
Speaking at a Hausa program in Kaduna, he said the government's offensive against the Boko Haram Islamic sect was a grave injustice against the North.
He said the Federal Government gave special treatment to the Niger Delta militants by granting them amnesty, but the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses destroyed.
He said President Goodluck Jonathan had failed from the outset in addressing the problem of security in Nigeria. He observed that the security challenge in Nigeria began with the Niger Delta area, when politicians, trying to retain their positions, recruited youths and armed them to help them win elections through sheer brute force.
Buhari said, “What is responsible for the security situation in the country was caused by the activities of Niger Delta militants.
“Every Nigerian that is familiar with what happened knows this. The Niger Delta militants started it all. What happened is that the governors of the Niger Delta region at that time wanted to win their elections, so they recruited the youths and gave them guns and bullets and used them against their opponents to win elections by force.
“After the elections were over, they asked the boys to return the guns, the boys refused to return the guns. Because of that, the allowance that was being given to the youths by the governors during that time was stopped.
“The youths resorted to kidnapping oil workers and were collecting dollars as ransom. Now a boy of 18 to 20 years was getting about $500 in a week, why will he go to school and spend 20 years to study and then come back and get employed by government to be paid N100,000 a month; that is if he is lucky to get employment?
“So kidnapping became very rampant in the south-south and the south-east. They kidnapped people and were collecting money.
“How did Boko Haram start? We know that their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, started his militancy and the police couldn’t control them and the army was invited. He was arrested by soldiers and handed over to the police.
“The appropriate thing to do, according to the law, was for the police to carry out investigations and charge him to court for prosecution, but they killed him, his in-law was killed, they went and demolished their houses.
“Because of that, his supporters resorted to what they are doing today.
“You see in the case of the Niger Delta militants, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua sent an airplane to bring them, he sat down with them and discussed with them, they were cajoled, and they were given money and granted amnesty.
“They were trained in some skills and were given employment, but the ones in the north are being killed and their houses demolished. They are different issues, what brought this? It is injustice.”
Click here to read more
Source: #ThisDayLive
Dated: June 3rd, 2013