Babangida expresses confidence in Buhari’s ability to recover stolen funds

Babangida

Former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd), has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has the capacity to recover Nigeria’s stolen funds.

Babangida stated this during an interview with journalists on Sunday in Minna, Niger State, to mark his 74th birthday.

Speaking on President Buhari’s efforts to recover stolen funds, he said: “My boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo created a similar strategy and, to be fair to him and his government, he made a lot of recoveries when he was in office; so we should support this present federal government in what is trying to do, to achieve the same objective”.

When asked whether he thought the president’s strategy in this direction would yield the desired results, Babangida stated that Buhari needs commitment to succeed.

“If he is resolute, I believe he will achieve some degree of stolen funds,” Babangida said. “You talk about oil theft, I am sure President Buhari is resolute to stamp out all those and to bring to book all those who have tampered especially in stealing our oil.”

On the new wave of attacks by Boko Haram since President Buhari assumed office, the former military leader said that the war against insurgents was exceptionally difficult because it was not a conventional war where military could test their full strength.

“I think there is a general misunderstanding of the whole concept of insurgency; you can call it anything – instability, guerilla war, terrorism. We are not fighting a regular army where you can confront them with sheer use of force and weapons to overwhelm the enemy; no, we have gotten a small trained army whose tactics is to inflict maximum casualty on its so-called enemy, inflict casualty on him when and where he least expects it. “The army is not fighting a conventional war; that makes it exceptionally difficult. They (Boko Haram militants) blow our bridges; they go as far as blowing up barracks and so on; this is an unconventional war. I think the soldiers are trained for it and they know this is the sort of thing they do. I think the public should be educated about this unconventional war.”

Asked whether he subscribed to the idea of the government negotiating with the Boko Haram, he said: “Unfortunately the president got it right. He said he will talk to people who are credible, who have been identified as some of the leaders of the insurgency but, so far, apart from one or two names, we do not hear any other name. I don’t think the government will like to talk to a vacuum, to talk to people who are not worth talking to, as far as these issues are concerned. So the government is right in being careful to identify and talk if there is anything to talk about.”

Babangida praised the efforts of President Buhari’s government so far in fighting the group, and stated that, beyond weapons, it was the mind behind the weapons that wins war, adding that troops training should be emphasized also. He also commended effort of the United States in training Nigeria military over time.