Garba Shehu: Boko Haram Degraded But Still Occasional Threat to Security

*Says Buhari’ll be appreciated much after leaving office

*World leaders hold President in very high esteem, Adesina boasts

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Less than a week to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years tenure, one of his spokespersons, Mallam Garba Shehu, reviewed efforts of the administration and said although the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency had been degraded, it remained an occasional threat to the nation.

Speaking in a 50-minute documentary entitled: “Buhari was here” aired on a national television station (Channels) yesterday evening, Shehu said the Boko Haram insurgents remained an “occasional threat to Nigerians.
“Boko Haram has been degraded. They are still an occasional threat. Once in a while, they remind us that they still exist. But they have largely been degraded,” he said.

The presidential spokesman further said, “No administration has funded the military like the Buhari administration. This funding has led to the repossession of territories Boko Haram seized in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
“Before, Boko Haram bombed mosques and churches killing worshippers. So, people stayed away from worship centres. But that is not the case today,” stressing that the full impact of the Buhari regime would be appreciated years after he might left office.

Also speaking, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said Buhari enjoyed the respect of world leaders in his eight years in office.
He said: “I have had the privilege of travelling with the President in the past eight years and I can tell you that he enjoyed so much respect from world leaders,” adding that, the president’s reputation as an anti-corruption advocate elicited respect from world leaders.

“Before they give you that kind of respect, they must have checked you out. And that is what happened with Buhari. Even when former British Minister said Nigeria is fantastically corrupt, the President did not pick offence.
“He knows there is corruption in Nigeria and so he said, ‘We will fight corruption’. Today, the ECOWAS commission is set to confer on him an award as a champion of democracy.”  

On his part, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, Senator Hadi Sirika, said the number of air travelers grew from eight million to 18 million in the last four years of Buhari’s government.
“This means that we have gone beyond the saying that air travelers double every 10 years. But here, we saw the number of air travelers more than double in four years,” said Sirika.
He noted that the present administration focused on flight safety rather than the visible aesthetics obtainable in other airports across the globe.