God Willing We Will Catch Boko Haram Leader 'Shekau' Before the Elections in Six Weeks Time - President Goodluck Jonathan


President Goodluck Jonathan was at the State House Marina, Lagos on Friday February 20, 2015 and was in a relaxed mood to chat with ThisDay about insecurities troubling Nigeria, here is what GEJ has to say...

Shekau, in a video, just threatened to disrupt the elections. What is your government doing about this?

God willing we will catch Shekau before the elections. 

Election was postponed because of Boko Haram, what had not been achieved in six years, how is it going to be achieved in six weeks?

PRESIDENT JONATHAN: In the Council of State meeting when the issue was raised, after the INEC chairman spoke, they asked the Chief of Defence staff to speak. He did not actually specify that the elections should be postponed because of the fight against Boko Haram. He said for the 14th February election, we could not guarantee the security; he did not tell us that it was only because they wanted to rout Boko Haram in the North-east.

You know Gombe was attacked on the 14th; that was the day we were to have presidential and the National Assembly elections. When the army repelled their attack, they started to investigate the attack. When the terrorists came into the city, they were kind of chanting anti-election slogans. The conclusions were that these people came to disrupt the elections. I believe that group was in the forest areas and didn’t know that the elections had been postponed. My conviction is that probably if we had gone on with the elections, similar groups would have attacked Bauchi, Yobe, Borno... The military said look, for security reasons, even outside the North-east, before the campaign started, there were no serious clashes but during the campaigns we’ve seen some dangerous flash points around the country, that for any head of the security in any country, we must prepare.

In 2011 we did not experience such, but at the end of the elections, tens of young people were killed; property destroyed even when we had no fears before the elections, but this time, what is happening? Recently in Rivers State, there was the incident of attack on a campaign rally, leading to the death of a policeman. And then to the situation that people were even encouraging young people to attack the president’s convoy. Any attack on the president’s convoy in any country is very serious and could be treasonable. Certain things must be done to fully prepare for the elections: the security architecture must be well positioned to tackle election violence. The issue of the North-east is also a factor, because as it is, if we had allowed the election to hold, Boko Haram could have really disrupted it, but not the whole country. But at the end of the day, if we conduct elections in the country, maybe four states, because we are talking about Gombe, Yobe, Adamawa and Borno, and even Bauchi. We have to be careful.

Assuming they disrupt elections in these four states, it will be difficult for INEC to declare a winner if the results are so close. And the nature of this country, if we have inconclusive elections, it could lead to anything. And we believe that within the next three to four weeks, the Boko Haram issue will be handled in a way that, even if they still exist, but they will be so weakened to a level that they may not be able to massively disrupt the elections in these main five states. Luckily, within this period, you have seen what is happening. We were looking for equipments before for the army. We had issues getting some military hardware from some countries. 

Sometimes we got it in a different way and ran into some challenges. That was a major factor in the timing, in trying to rebuild the military capacity... but the government is not saying that they must rout Boko Haram before Nigeria conducts election. No one has said that. In 2011 when Nigeria conducted elections, we had Boko Haram. Boko Haram was there before I became vice-president. It predated my being a vice-president in 2007, but it became worrisome in 2009 when the leader, Yusuf, was killed after they slaughtered an Assistant Commissioner of Police. So they’ve been with us, even in 2011, but the elections were conducted.

So nobody is saying that we must win the war against Boko Haram hundred per cent. We cannot expect to win the war against such terror hundred per cent before the elections anyway but we will not allow them keep all the territories they hold. Holding unto our territories is like a civil war. We will take over those territories, but that doesn’t mean that terrorism is over in Nigeria. We are not saying we must finish Boko Haram to conduct elections, but we should get to a point where they will not cause havoc if they make an attempt. My belief is that by 28th of next month, when the elections will be conducted Boko Haram may not even be in a position to attack any town, God willing.

The question keeps arising: why did it take an election to checkmate Boko Haram?

You are aware of how we’ve been struggling to get the military equipments and hardware required to fight Boko Haram. These weapons are needed. Before this time you heard of stories about soldiers running away from the battle field. It’s not as if Boko Haram came with superior weapons. It was just because they were ready to die. The soldiers are not suicide bombers; they are trained to defeat their opponents. So when they see the situation of suicide fighters being so difficult, there is the tendency for them to retreat and replan. At least within these past few days, we have been making progress with the right equipment for this type of warfare. It’s not as if we have received all the equipments that we ordered, but we have received significant quantity that will enable us prosecute this war.

If you ask other presidents globally, though not 100 per cent, but a majority would tell you that most of them had more challenges during their second tenure, and they always win with smaller margins. In Nigeria, what worsened my case was this issue of insecurity with the Boko Haram. And you cannot blame citizens who didn’t feel so safe. If we build good roads, the people must be alive to drive on them. Yes, I built nine universities in the North and so ordinarily I should be celebrated but when people are dying every day, they will not value the universities. So this insecurity was a challenge.
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