The speech Buhari shouldn’t have made

The Muhammadu Buhari Presidency is making the same grave error that doomed the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the fight against Boko Haram terror war. Unfortunately, with the fallout from the recent controversial speech that subtly sought to blame the United States as being partly responsible for the protracted Boko Haram terror war, it seems the President may have fallen into the same old assumptions that blighted the Jonathan Presidency.

Nothing demonstrated my fears that this administration may be toeing the same path that rendered the Jonathan administration powerless and emboldened the insurgents than the just concluded trip to the US. The trip, which has been hailed as successful on many fronts, was however dampened by a speech the President should never have made.

The urgency to stop Nigeria’s terror war while seeking the support of the US government had topped Buhari’s visit. But when the issue came up for discussion, it almost turned awry. President Buhari had shockingly adopted the stance of his predecessor which was to hold the US government as partly responsible for Nigeria’s failure to defeat the insurgents. Ironically, the speech had reflected the understanding of the previous administration of the US role in the fight against Boko Haram, an approach which had prolonged the terror war and almost ruined the country’s relations with the US.

Addressing an international gathering at the United States Institute for Peace, President Buhari was quoted to have said: “Regrettably, the blanket application of the Leahy Law by the United States on the grounds of unproven allegations of human rights violations levelled against our forces has denied us access to appropriate strategic weapons to prosecute the war against the insurgents. Unwittingly–and I dare say unintentionally – the application of the Leahy Law … has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorists in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killing and maiming of civilians, the raping of women and girls and other heinous crimes.”