former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration sought to procure arms to fight Boko Haram by simply stuffing dollars in suitcases, PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari disclosed this yesterday.
He, however, disclosed that his administration was taking urgent and appropriate actions to restore order, due process and probity to the procurement processes of the Armed Forces.
He made the disclosure at a meeting with the British Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Michael Fallon, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President regretted that procurement of equipment for Nigeria’s Armed Forces, which followed due process in the past, became open to corruption and shady deals under the last administration.
“They just put foreign ex- change in a briefcase and traveled to procure equipment for the military. That is why we have found ourselves in the crisis we are now facing,” he said.
Welcoming the offer by the British Government to assist Nigeria in defence procurements, intelligence gathering and training, Buhari restated his conviction that the inter- national community must collaborate more and work with greater unity of purpose to overcome global terrorism.
“Terrorism has become very sophisticated now. If developed nations can be at- tacked, and hundreds of lives lost, how much more devel- oping countries?
“In the West African sub- region, Nigeria is the main battleground of the Boko Haram insurgency. We have made a lot of progress against the terrorists, but we will welcome more assistance from our friends and the international community,” he said.
Earlier, Fallon said he was in the country to see what more Britain could do to sup- port Nigeria in battling terror- ism and violent extremism.
The Sun
