How We Will Stop Boko Haram, By Muhammadu Buhari
General Muhammadu Buhari, as published in
yesterday’s edition of New York Times.
ABUJA— When Boko Haram attacked a school in
the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria,
kidnapping more than 200 girls, on the night of
April 14, 2014, the people of my country were
aghast. Across the world, millions of people
joined them in asking: How was it possible for
this terrorist group to act with such impunity? It
took nearly two weeks before the government
even commented on the crime.
This lack of reaction was symptomatic of why the
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan
was swept aside last month – the first time an
incumbent president has been successfully voted
out of office in the history of our nation. For too
long they ruled, not governed, and in doing so had
become so focused on their own self-interest and
embroiled in corruption that the duty to react to
the anguish suffered by their citizens had become
alien to them.
My administration, which will take office on May
29, will act differently – indeed it is the very
reason we have been elected. This must begin
with honesty as to whether the Chibok girls can
be rescued. Currently their whereabouts remain
unknown. We do not know the state of their
health or welfare, or whether they are even still
together or alive. As much as I wish to, I cannot
promise that we can find them: to do so would
be to offer unfounded hope, only to compound
the grief if, later, we find we cannot match such
expectation. But I say to every parent, family
member and friend of the children that my
government will do everything in its power to
bring them home.
What I can pledge, with absolute certainty, is that
from the first day of my administration, Boko
Haram will know the strength of our collective
will and commitment to rid this nation of terror,
and bring back peace and normalcy to all the
affected areas. Until now, Nigeria has been
wanting in its response to their threat: With our
neighbours fighting hard to push the terrorists
south and out of their countries, our military was
not sufficiently supported or equipped to push
north. As a consequence, the outgoing
government’s lack of determination was an
accidental enabler of the group, allowing them to
operate with impunity in Nigerian territory.
That is why the answer to defeating Boko Haram
begins and ends with Nigeria. That is not to say
that allies cannot help us. My administration
would welcome the resumption of a military
training agreement with the United States, which
was halted during the previous administration. We
must, of course, have better coordination with the
military campaigns our African allies, like Chad
and Niger, are waging in the struggle against
Boko Haram. But, in the end, the answer to this
threat must come from within Nigeria.
We must start by deploying more troops to the
front and away from civilian areas in central and
southern Nigeria where for too long they have
been used by successive governments to quell
dissent. We must work closer with our neighbors
in coordinating our military efforts so an offensive
by one army does not see their country’s lands
rid of Boko Haram only to push it across the
border onto their neighbors’ territory.
But as our military pushes Boko Haram back, as
it will, we must be ready to focus on what else
must be done to counter the terrorists. We must
address why it is that young people join Boko
Haram. There are many reasons why vulnerable
young people join militant groups, but among
them are poverty and ignorance.
Indeed Boko Haram – which translates in English,
roughly, as “Western Education Is Sinful” – preys
on the perverted belief that the opportunities that
education brings are sinful.
Promise of food
If you are starving and young, and in search of
answers as to why your life is so difficult,
fundamentalism can be alluring. We know this for
a fact because former members of Boko Haram
have admitted it: They offer impressionable young
people money and the promise of food, while the
group’s mentors twist their minds with
fanaticism. So we must be ready to offer the
parts of our country affected by this group an
alternative.
Boosting education will be a direct counterbalance
to Boko Haram’s appeal. In particular we must
educate more young girls, ensuring they will grow
up to be empowered through learning to play
their full part as citizens of Nigeria and pull
themselves up and out of poverty. Indeed, we
owe it to the schoolgirls of Chibok to provide as
best an education as possible for their fellow
young citizens.
Boko Haram feeds off despair. It feeds off a lack
of hope that things can improve. By attacking a
site of learning, and kidnapping more than 200
schoolgirls, it sought to strike at the very place
where hope for the future is nurtured, and the
promise of a better Nigeria. It is our intention to
show Boko Haram that it will not succeed. My
government will first act to defeat it militarily and
then ensure that we provide the very education it
despises to help our people help themselves.
Boko Haram will soon learn that, as Nelson
Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful
weapon which you can use to change the world.”
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