Buhari ’ll lead military to fight B’Haram – Osinbajo

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives
Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) will
lead the military to the North-East to fight the Boko
Haram insurgents if voted into power on February 14,
his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), said on
Monday.
Osinbajo expressed concern over deepening
insecurity in the country and accused President
Goodluck Jonathan of reneging on his promise to
protect Nigerians.
Fielding questions from a group of youths at a town
hall meeting in Abuja, the APC vice presidential
candidate said Buhari as President and Commander-
In-Chief would lead by example.
The town hall meeting held under the aegis of Act Now
Professionals.
Osinbajo told the gathering how the Buhari-led
government would end insurgency in the country,
especially in the North-East states of Borno, Yobe and
Adamawa.
He also explained how the APC-led government would
rescue the over 200 female students of Government
Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, seized since
April 14 2014; equip the military and give the country
a sense of protection.
Osinbajo said, "The first priority is security and to
question what has gone wrong in the military. Then,
funding the military adequately and ensuring that the
Commander-In-Chief leads from the front. But when
he was Commander-In-Chief, Buhari led from the
front as a soldier. You cannot lead from the rear. You
cannot fail to go to where the insurgency is taking
place and that is what Buhari has been saying.
"I think that the major problem with the question of
security is again that it was not prioritised by this
government. It was not taken seriously enough from
the beginning. When you have a situation, you do not
politicise the insurgency like that. You do not point to
the opposition and say it is the opposition that is
sponsoring it until General Buhari almost lost his life
when Boko Haram attacked him.
"We must start by understanding that there is a war
going on in that part of the country and what the
government need to do is to get the nation behind it,
not pointing accusing fingers at wrong places.
"We need to look at the whole question of funding and
equipping the military. The military at the moment is
not equipped. I worked with Femi Falana on the
mutiny of some solders and what is the complaint of
those soldiers who were charged with mutiny? Their
complaint is that they were not given equipment and
they wanted them to go to battle. So, how do you say
that? How does anybody think that you can fight the
insurgents without ammunitions?"
The APC vice presidential candidate said that there
would be no hiding place for perpetrators of graft as
the country's laws that forbid looting of public
treasury would be activated.
According to him, the APC will run a transparent
government where public officials would be
accountable to the people.
Osinbajo said creation of jobs for the country's youths
remained on top of the agenda of the APC if elected
into office.
"Jobs and creation of employment opportunities have
been major issues in the manifesto of the APC," he told
the audience.
He re-echoed the party's earlier promise that the
Buhari-led government would place jobless and poor
Nigerians on monthly stipends of N5,000 and N7,000
respectively.
"The idea is to take 2.5 million people out of poverty
every year. We will give free healthcare to children. We
will follow the example of Osun State where such has
been done successfully," he said.