President Muhammadu Buhari has indicated frustration over several cases of Boko Haram insurgency, herdsmen and farmer clashes, and also cattle rustling bedeviling the country.
He also cited facility and pipeline sabotage in the Niger Delta, kidnappings for ransom and the Shiite-Army and Police clashes.
He further recounted the pro-Biafra agitators in the southeast among other issues giving him sleepless nights.
The president referred to the above-mentioned cases as “significant and sustained breaches of the norms of law and order.”
President Buhari made the observation during a speech he delivered at the graduation ceremony of the senior executive course 38 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies [NIPSS].
The event, wherein he was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was held at Kuru, Jos, Plateau State on November 19, 2016.
However, Buhari said that “beginning with the Boko Haram insurgency, in the past year, the capacity of the Boko Haram as a military force and to hold territory has, to a level, been degraded, much laws and instability has resulted.”
He noted that “it is essentially a rag-tag left-over that still carry out the itinerant ambushes and raids especially in border territories.”
Commenting on the effects of their activities, he said: “Almost over 2 million people have been displaced in the Northeast, some in IDP camps, but most in host communities, with orphans in the tens of thousands.
“As the insurgents fled very many small border hamlets, they left behind women and children that they had held in captivity, in many cases badly malnourished.
“Several local and international humanitarian organisations, working in the region have worked hard with the government to contain the large number of individuals of malnourished and dying children.
“I ordered the establishment of an inter-ministerial task-force of relevant line ministries to create more order and synergy with the humanitarian organisations, NGOs and the UN agencies.
“Barely two weeks ago, I also formally inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiatives (PCNI) headed by General T.Y. Danjuma, Rtd, to coordinate both official and private initiatives in the region and also ensure that the state governments have the same power to rehabilitate in a particular area where they have found their competence useful.”
On the efforts of the government to restore sanity in affected areas, he stated: “Only recently, Dikwa Local Government had some of the public buildings, schools, hospitals rebuilt.
“PCNI provided the material while the state government, the builders, artisans and labourers executed the job.
“Still the humanitarian tragedies are immense and the losses are enormous.
He lamented that “No farming has taken place in many of the villages and communities for over three years.
“Farmlands in many cases have been mined by the fleeing insurgents and because they are largely at various communities, the deprivation of livelihood and economic opportunities is big.
“Invariably, this dents agriculture’s 32 percent contribution to our GDP.
Buhari also lauded the efforts of respective agencies to ensure the safety and return of abducted persons, especially the Chibok Girls.
He said that “although the terrorists still hold several persons captive, the nation recently received the cheering news of the rescue of 21 of the Chibok girls after practically two years in captivity.
“They were reunited with their families.
“Government is, and as I have said repeatedly, committed in ensuring that all the girls and all those who are in captivity are returned safely.”
Turning to Fulani herdsmen and farmer clashes, President Buhari noted that this has had an unfortunate long history.
He noted that disputes, use of essential resources, farmlands and grazing areas and water, farmers complaining of invasion of their farms and destruction of their crops by cattle, climate change and the continuous decrease in grazing land have led to even greater complications.
He said: “More recently, the disputes have turned more violent with the arming of herdsmen with guns.
“There is also evidence of the infiltrations of the ranks of the herdsmen by North African youths who have been involved in the civil conflict between Libya and Mali.
“The proliferation of small arms in these conflicts has probably made them more available to criminal acts.
“Cattle rustling has also been a prominent breach of law and order,” he added.
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