I Won’t Resign Over Boko Haram – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he
will not resign if he does not fulfill his
promise of defeating Boko Haram by
December 2015.

President Muhammadu Buhari
In a recent interview with Aljazeera, he
acknowledged that he would be willing to
negotiate with the Boko Haram group to
secure the release of the kidnapped Chibok
schoolgirls.
“They have to prove to us that they are alive,
they are well, and then we can negotiate with
them. We said it and we meant it. If we are
satisfied that the girls are alive ,” President
Buhari told UpFront host Mehdi Hasan.
READ ALSO: Nigerian Troops Abandon Fight
Against B’Haram For Civil Defence?
When asked whether he would offer financial
payments, or a prisoner release, to Boko
Haram in return for the girls, Buhari did not
rule out either option. “Well it depends on the
negotiations with the leadership of Boko
Haram.”
The president has pledged to defeat Boko
Haram by the end of 2015 and “as soon as
the rainy season comes, which is by the end of
the year… Boko Haram will virtually be out of
their main stronghold and that will be the end of
it …. Attacks by Boko Haram on townships, on
military installations, will certainly stop.”
If Boko Haram isn’t defeated by December,
however, Buhari said he “will not resign. I will
be determined to stay and fight it out.”
The president claimed not to have seen the
Amnesty International report from June
2015, ‘Nigeria: Stars on their shoulders: Blood
on their hands’ , in which the human-rights
group documented abuses, torture and
unlawful killings by the Nigerian armed forces
and urged the government to prosecute a
group of officers and senior commanders.
“I haven’t received that report personally,” said
Buhari. “If I get those documents… I assure you
that I will take action as Commander in Chief.”
READ ALSO: Why Boko Haram Violence
Persists
Asked about his record as a military dictator
in the mid-1980s, and the alleged human-
rights abuses which occurred under his
watch, Buhari said: “If there is any injustice
that can be proved against me when I was
there, I will gladly apologise.”
The president refused to concede that his
now-notorious ‘war against indiscipline’ in the
1980s featured any such “injustice”.
The full interview will air of Aljazeera later
today, October 16, by 7.30pm.
Meanwhile, fresh reports have it that the
death toll of Friday morning’s deadly bomb
blast in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital,
has risen to 26.