By Garba Shehu<\/p>\n
SSA to the President (Media and Publicity).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A good number of the reactions to President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s The girls in Gwoza who were raped by militants do not care where the help One of the main thrusts of President Buhari\u2019s campaign was the war on It is on account of these people and their desperate situation, and on the Those efforts by President Buhari led to several gains, including the The fears that our country\u2019s membership in this coalition will draw Terrorism is heathen and knows no religion. It can only be defeated by the With a precedent as shown above, it will be unkind and uncharitable of “The presidency\u2019s doublespeak on Nigeria\u2019s membership of the Saudi But barely two weeks after, President Muhammadu Buhari himself confirmed “This explanation is simplistic, to say the least and does not do any good Sensibilities offended? Can anyone face the more than two million Let me say that the presidential aide in question is no other than myself. To that extent, it is untrue of anyone to say the President had ab initio What the President said, to paraphrase him, was that “we may not be with That some of the criticism against the President is coming from opposition It holds up a mirror to the PDP’s cluelessness and total absence of A set of politicians who failed to confront or attack terrorism while in By Garba Shehu SSA to the President (Media and Publicity). A good number of the reactions to President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s announcement that Nigeria has joined the Islamic Coalition Against Terrorism,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nannouncement that Nigeria has joined the Islamic Coalition Against
\nTerrorism, show quite clearly that many Nigerians do not fully understand
\nthe president\u2019s motives for this decision. With the rise of the Boko
\nHaram Terrorist group of the past few years, Nigeria faces a threat such
\nas no other in its entire history and existence. Desperate times require
\ndesperate, unusual, measures.<\/p>\n
\ncomes from as far as they will eventually be able to move about freely
\nwithout fear of being kidnapped and used as sex slaves. The mothers in
\nBama whose sons were slaughtered before their eyes do not worry whether
\nBoko Haram is defeated by a Christian or Muslim coalition. The hundreds
\nof thousands in IDP camps are concerned simply about when they can safely
\nreturn to their homes and resume their normal lives. For these ones most
\nhard hit by the Boko Haram terrorists, whether the help they so
\ndesperately need comes from the United States of America or from Saudi
\nArabia does not matter.<\/p>\n
\nterror. He promised that his administration would bring an end to Boko
\nHaram, and set about doing just that as soon as he was elected, travelling
\nto different countries and meeting with various heads of state to discuss
\nthe way forward on the issue. At the time, no Nigerian worried that
\nPresident Buhari was seeking help from the West. No one worried about the
\nideology of those willing and able to help our country to defeat terror.
\nNigerians were simply united with their President in a determination to
\nbring Boko Haram to an end so that our brothers and sisters in the
\nnortheast can resume their normal lives.<\/p>\n
\nbasis of national interest only, that President Buhari accepted the offer,
\nwith both hands, of assistance from G7 countries at the commencement of
\nhis administration. Religion was not a consideration then. It is also not
\na consideration now that he has made the decision to embrace help in
\nfighting terror from the Middle-East. The safety of Nigerians and the
\ntotal annihilation of Boko Haram is of more importance than the unfounded
\nworries of Nigeria\u2019s so-called Islamisation.<\/p>\n
\ntechnical defeat of Boko Haram by the end of 2015 as he had promised
\nduring the election campaigns. Once again, our Commander-in-Chief has
\nsought help where he believes our country will benefit and the religious
\naffiliation or ideology of our benefactors should not be the paramount
\nconsideration. It is simply one of those cases where the enemies of our
\nenemy has become our enemy. The enemy of terrorists all around the globe
\nis our friend.<\/p>\n
\nIslamic State, ISIS\u2019s attention to Nigeria are too late. As the President
\nhas repeatedly maintained, it is Boko Haram that proclaimed allegiance to
\nISIS, thereby dragging us into the global terrorism network. By pledging
\nallegiance to ISIS, the terrorists already drew the international terror
\ngroup\u2019s attention to this part of the world. ISIS proudly and openly
\naccepted this proclamation of allegiance. They have their sights set on
\nus already.<\/p>\n
\nunity of entire humanity. Criticism of the membership of this alliance
\nonly shows our disarray and a lack of unity against terror and will only
\nmake the terrorists happy. The fears of so-called Islamisation are strange
\nand unfounded, and meant only to feed the fear and suspicions existing
\namong Nigerians.<\/p>\n
\nanyone to accuse President Buhari of executing deception. In an unusually
\nharsh commentary, this country’s most respected newspaper The Punch on
\nSunday succeeded in exactly doing this. Read this:<\/p>\n
\nArabia-led anti-terror Islamic coalition is unfortunate in the extreme. In
\nthe beginning, an aide to the president on media and publicity issued a
\nstatement to the effect that the president had declined Nigeria\u2019s
\nmembership of the coalition and therefore did not attend its meeting while
\non a diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\nNigeria\u2019s membership of the coalition in an interview with a foreign
\ntelevision station, Al- Jazeera. Buhari, who never tabled such a sensitive
\nmatter before the National Assembly, said there are terrorists in Nigeria
\nwho have claimed to be Muslims. So, according to the him, \u201cWe are part of
\nit because we have got terrorists in Nigeria who claim that they are
\nIslamic. So, if there is an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism, Nigeria
\nwill be part of it because we are casualties of Islamic terrorism.<\/p>\n
\nto expected political astuteness of President Buhari. In the main,
\nmembership of any such coalition is unacceptable for it offends the
\nsensibilities of Nigerians in their diverse inclinations and should be
\nreversed.”<\/p>\n
\nunhoused, mostly Muslim refugees displaced by terror now being fed, almost
\nexclusively by Christian charities that it is offensive them, or that it
\nmatters to them who, between Christians and Muslims is supplying the next
\nmeal? The one who raised a tent over their heads?<\/p>\n
\nAlthough I write statements emanating from the Presidency, I don’t choose
\nwhat headline writers will use to caption those stories.<\/p>\n
\nrejected a membership of the coalition against terror.<\/p>\n
\nyou, but we will support you in every possible way we can.” This does not
\npresuppose rejection. Even if it was one, nothing says that a government
\ncannot move or adjust its position based on new, superior facts as we
\nindividuals do in our daily lives.<\/p>\n
\nSenators is even more absurd, showing a lack of judgement and
\ndiscrimination- or even worse.<\/p>\n
\nstrategy to defeat Boko Haram terrorism. The party’s projection of itself
\nas better than the APC in this regard is hobbled by their own record of
\nindecision and serial abdication on Chibok girls as disclosed by
\nAmbassador Packock and greed, corruption and a general incapacity to drive
\nthe anti terror war.<\/p>\n
\npower have no right to challenge President Buhari’s hounding of them. To
\nglobal acclaim. Trivia smells. There is a need for a new fragrance in the
\nair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"