President Muhammadu Buhari has explained why the Federal government preferred to negotiate with the Boko Haram terror group, as against outright military action.
Buhari told visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Abuja, that the said negotiation is only in respect of the abducted Chibok and Dapchi school girls.
According to Buhari, the government prefers to have the schoolgirls back alive than to apply military force, which could endanger their lives.
Receiving the America envoy at the presidential villa, Abuja, Buhari said that Nigeria is working in concert with international organizations and negotiators, to ensure that the girls are released unharmed by their captors.
“We are trying to be careful. It is better to get our daughters back alive,” the President said.
He thanked America for the assistance rendered in the fight against insurgency, noting that Nigerian forces are good, “but need assistance in the areas of training and equipment.”
President Buhari promised that his administration would continue to do its best to secure the country, adding that he would be in Yobe State, from where the Dapchi schoolgirls were abducted, later this week “as part of my condolence and sympathy visits to areas where we have had unfortunate events.”
The President pledged free and fair polls in 2019, recalling that the then American Secretary of State, John Kerry, had visited before the 2015 polls, “and he told the party in government then, and those of us in opposition, to behave ourselves, and we did.”
Tillerson, on his part, commended President Buhari on his strides in the anti-corruption war, to which the Nigerian leader responded that money recovered is being invested in the development of infrastructure.
Tillerson described Nigeria as being very important country to the U.S, stressing: “You have our support in your challenges. We will also support opportunities to expand the economy, commercial investments, and peaceful polls in 2019.”
Meanwhile, the U.S Secretary of State has expressed the hope that school girls from both Chibok and Dapchi would be released peacefully through some sort of negotiation.