APC commends military for victories against Boko Haram

APC commends military for victories against Boko Haram

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended the military for the successes it had recorded in the battle against Boko Haram in recent times, saying the string of victories confirmed the party’s stand that the Nigerian military could hold its own anywhere and anytime, if
provided with the necessary equipment and if the morale of the troops
was not undermined.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Muhammed, said this
in a statement he issued in London on Tuesday.

Mohammed said by his own admission, President Goodluck Jonathan
accepted that he and his team ‘underrated the capacity of Boko
Haram’, thus finally owning up to his globally-acknowledged
incompetence, which in truly democratic societies, should be part of a
statement of resignation by a leader.

According to him, Jonathan’s “terrible error of judgment” had caused
so many deaths and inflicted so much pain and sorrow on Nigerians.

The statement partly read, “The truth is that President Jonathan
deliberately allowed the Boko Haram crisis to fester because he and
his team saw it as their trump card for winning re-election in 2015 by
currying local and global sectarian sympathy with a Muslim-group-
killing-Christians narrative that totally distorts the fact that Boko
Haram is a band of marauders who have no consideration for ethnicity, regionalism, religion or any other thing beyond their mad disposition to terror.

“The marauders are equal-opportunity killers who went after Christians, Muslims, northerners, southerners, men, women, the old, the young, the rich and the poor.

“It recalled that the APC had raised the alarm on many occasions,
including during an appearance at the British Parliament in 2014 when
the party’s spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the PDP and
President Jonathan were using the Boko Haram crisis as a trump card
to retain power in 2015.

“Is it not curious that the same President who has stood by while
Boko Haram decimates a whole section of the country over the past
six years has suddenly realised there is something he could do to
crush the sect in six weeks?

“Is it not curious that a military that has been globally acknowledged
for its successes in peacekeeping at regional and international levels
has suddenly found itself unable to tackle a band of criminals?

“Is it not curious that the necessary fighting equipment that have not
been made available to the military, despite the injection of over
$32bn into the defence and security sector since 2008, have suddenly
become available?”

The APC also asked at what point did President Jonathan begin to
have a clear idea that Boko Haram is a major threat to the very
survival of our country or was it after about 300 innocent girls were
abducted from their school in Chibok or before?

“Was it after hundreds of boys were slaughtered in a secondary school
in Buni Yadi or before? Or, was it before or after the Nyanya blast that
led to the deaths of hundreds of people? Just when did our President
wake up to his primary responsibility?” it further queried.

The APC insisted that the truth is that the PDP-led Jonathan
Administration stepped up the campaign against the insurgents to
revive their electoral fortunes which nosedived with the activities to
the sect.