The president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has recently stated that his administration would see to prioritizing ending Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.
He also said he would focus on re-activating the Lake Chad in addition to deploying enormous resources to resume vigorous search for oil along the Chad Basin in parts of Borno state and other parts of the region. According to the Nation, Buhari revealed his agenda while responding to requests by Governor Kashim Shettima, the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Elkanemi and some elders of the state who visited him at his residence in Kaduna.
Buhari buttressed that he was very much aware of the problems of the northeast and would not waste time in taking them up one after the other. He added that his administration would establish collaboration with governments of Chad, Niger and Cameroon to retrench the trans-border movement of Boko Haram terrorists, cut supply of arms, cut recruitment and training of fresh recruits.
According to the president-elect, stability of the northeast is a vital project for his administration; therefore, nothing can be achieved unless peace is restored to the troubled region. Speaking with the delegation, Buhari noted that the receding of Lake Chad would be addressed through the transfer of water from the Central African Republic to the lake to boost it commercial activities for fishing and irrigation farming. The lake, according to him, has the potentials to create millions of jobs through irrigation.
While receiving the All Progressives Congress members from Bauchi state, Buhari appealed to Nigerians to be patient and not expect that his administration would instantly address the many problems confronting the country. He elaborated in his speech that the task of governing Nigeria had become increasingly difficult because of what he termed massive rape of its economy and leadership deficit created by successive administration.