President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday that since 2015, his government has spent more than $1 billion on weapons for the war against terrorism, especially to take back areas that terrorists from Boko Haram have taken over.
The president announced this while accepting an award from the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum in Mauritania for strengthening peace in Africa.
He says that the country is working hard to stop international terrorism, banditry, and other transnational crimes by using both physical and non-physical means.
In a statement released by his media adviser, Femi Adesina, the President stated, “When I came to power in 2015, Boko Haram controlled almost two-thirds of Borno State, half of Yobe State, and a few local government areas in Adamawa State—all of which are located in Nigeria’s north-east. By spending over $1 billion to purchase hard and software weapons from the US and other friendly countries to conduct ongoing operations against the insurgency since 2015, we have been able to reclaim these vast tracts of land.
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The Multinational Joint Task Force, which consists of Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and the Cameroon Republic, and our armed forces, continue to show extraordinary bravery while paying the ultimate price to protect our nation’s freedom. We continue to expend extremely limited and scarce resources to make sure that we have a well-resourced military force to handle this duty, notwithstanding the challenging times we are in. Idealistically, these funds may be used for infrastructure improvements, healthcare, education, and other social services, but we have discovered the hard way that without peace, our kids can’t go to school or get the treatment they need.
