INTERVIEW: What Buahri Told Voice Of America(VOA) But, Never Said On CNN

President Muhammadu Buhari was on Tuesday, July 21, interviewed by correspondent Peter Clottey of another respected US media, Voice of America.

During the conversation the Nigerian leader said that Boko Haram would be up and running by the end of July when the joint anti-Boko Haram force becomes operational.

“We have killed the commanders. Certain troops have been trained and the multinational joint task force, comprising of troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Benin Republic, are being heard in the theater of operations, so really this is the practical and the realistic way the problem can be fixed.”

And as far as the operations start is concerned, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said earlier that “July 21 has been picked as a date for that force to swing into action.”

Recall that speaking with CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour Buhari, described the steps being taken to ensure security, without providing, however, details about when the terrorism could be put to an end.

VOA: Morale of your military force were a little down before you took power. You changed strategy moving some folks to the north to fight the insurgency. How sure are you that your plan will succeed, especially when Boko Haram have stepped up attacks with suicide bombings now?

Buhari: We have killed the commanders. Certain troops have been trained and the multinational joint task force, comprising of troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Benin Republic, are being heard in the theater of operations, so really this is the practical and the realistic way the problem can be fixed.

VOA: Mr President, I will quote, you said: “Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and governance in place.” How do you intend to implement that?

Buhari: What we intend to do is to insist that whatever institution do is constitutional. And what is not constitutional, must be properly explained. For example, this lifting… illegal lifting of crude. You can see that the humans were forged. And it is done sometimes, a lot of times, with the cooperation of members of the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation).

Certainly [Nigerian oil officials] can’t say they are loading Nigerian crude into an unknown unregistered ships, so there is a lot of disrespect for the laws of the country that had been taking place for more than 10 years and that shouldn’t frustrate us, or stop us from operating,” said Buhari, a former top oil industry executive.

We just draw our lines, we continue, but wherever we uncover that public funds has been siphoned, or crude has been stolen, we will trace it through the movements of the ships, through the accounts of people it went through,” he said. “This cannot be done overnight.