Buhari at Shehu of Borno Palace
President Muhammadu Buhari was booed Wednesday in Maiduguri by residents who chanted Ba Ma So, meaning ‘we don’t like it’ when the president paid a condolence visit to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar El-Kanemi, over the insurgents’ mayhem in Auno community.
The attack claimed 30 lives, 18 vehicles and several houses at the weekend when Buhari was attending a conference in Ethiopia.
Buhari had landed in Maiduguri and was driven to the palace but residents lined up the airport road to boo him and chanted ‘we don’t like it, an obvious reference to the visit. It was yet another condolence visit in as many months by the president over the killings by insurgents especially in the north east.
A resident identified as Isa said they booed Buhari because they felt he was not doing enough to protect them. He claimed the Army was not capable of defeating Boko Haram. “We came here when we learnt that our President was coming. He is our President but we are not happy that our people are being killed and all he can do is pay sympathy visit. We are tired of such visits.
“We don’t want Boko Haram killing us. Drive them away. Even the Army and police are tired. We are not safe in Maiduguri. We cannot go to market, we cannot farm. We need action from our president, not sympathy visit”.
Meanwhile, Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno has urged the Nigerian Armed Forces to change strategies in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram to facilitate successful implementation of the counter insurgency campaign.
Mr Isa Gusa, the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Relations and Strategy, quoted Zulum as saying this in a statement on Wednesday in Maiduguri.
Gusau said the governor made the call when President Muhammadu Buhari paid a sympathy visit to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar El-Kanemi, over the insurgents’ mayhem in Auno community.
The attack claimed 30 lives, 18 vehicles and several houses.
He quoted the governor, who acknowledged the successes recorded by the military in the past three years, as calling for new tactics to check resurgence of insurgents’ activities in the state.
“Your Excellency; between March 2019 to date, we have started witnessing horrific and spontaneous attacks by the insurgents which has resulted into the loss of lives and properties of our people.
“We are calling upon the Nigerian military to change strategies and we can borrow a leaf from the success our military was able to hugely record in the years 2016 and 2017 with a view to ending the insurgency.
“We need to keep taking the war to enclaves of the insurgents in the fringes of the Lake Chad Basin, Sambisa Forest and some notable areas,” Zulum was quoted as saying in the statement.
