President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has described terrorism now trending in many parts of the world as ‘a hot bird’ “and we are going to be stopping them.”
Trump, who had an audience with his Nigeria’s guest, President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House in the US today, said that his discussion with Buhari later in the day would centre on terrorism: “that is terrorism here and terrorism all over the world.”
He expressed worry over what he called “a very serious problem with Christians who are being murdered, killed in Nigeria. We gonna be working on that problem, and working on that problem very very hard because we can’t allow that to happen.”
This was even as Trump assured his host that his government had very much decimated ISIS and that much has taken place over the last twelve months.
Responding, President Buhari expressed gratitude to the US for the physical presence of its military instructors that went into Nigeria’s institutions and train the officers, “and go to the front in the North East to see how they are performing as a result of the training given to them.
“The commitment of the United States to get rid of terrorism across the world, we have had first-hand experience of that, and we are very grateful for it.
He also thanked the US for agreeing to give Nigeria the air craft “we asked and the spare parts. Certainly, security is the main issue now.”
On the problem of the cattle rearers and herders in Nigeria, President Buhari said that it is a very long historical thing, explaining that the normal herders before now, never carried anything more than a stick and occasionally a machete to cut down foliage and give it to their animals.
“These ones are carrying AK 47. So, I don’t think people should underrate what happened in Libya. Fourty three years of Gadaffi, people were recruited from the Sahel. They were thought nothing other than to shoot and kill. With the demise of Gadaffi, they moved to their countries and their regions and they carried along with them, the only experience they have and training, using weapons. And that is what is aggravating the situation.”
President Buhari assured his host that his government is doing its best to ensure that it stops cross border and to get the proliferation of small arms weapons in the regions checked.
“But it is going to take time, and the action by the United States in trying to see the end of ISIS has help us a lot because Boko Haram in Nigeria at one time made a statement that they were loyal to ISIS. And now that ISIS has virtually gone with the help of the United States, we are very grateful for that and we are sure that we are stabilizing the situation of security in Nigeria.
On Chibok girls who were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, Buhari said that his government has recovered a lot of them even as he said that 100 out of 106 Dapchi School girls abducted also by Boko Haram had returned to their parents while four are died and one is still held in captivity.
“We are very grateful for the United Nations Organization that is acting in between us and the kidnappers and haven’t given up, we are trying to get all of them back to join their families and their schools.” [myad]
