New Nigerian president seeks to crush ‘godless’ Boko Haram

New Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed on Friday to eradicate the “mindless, godless” militant group Boko Haram and rescue hundreds of women and children held captive, including 200 girls taken from the town of Chibok a year ago. In his inaugural address as elected leader of Africa’s most populous nation and biggest oil producer, Buhari also painted a picture of an economy in crisis after a collapse in the price of crude, which accounts for the bulk of state revenue. Buhari’s election victory in March was Nigeria’s first democratic transfer of power. He inherits a host of problems from his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, whose five-year tenure was marked by aimless security and foreign policy-making, as well as corruption scandals.

We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage.

New Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari

Meanwhile, the United States is prepared to send military trainers to Nigeria to help Buhari’s armed forces improve their intelligence gathering and logistics, a senior State Department official said on Friday. Strains between U.S. military advisers and the Nigerian army over human rights abuses and corruption under Buhari’s predecessor Jonathan undermined cooperation in efforts to counter the six-year-old Boko Haram insurgency. The State Department official said Buhari and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would discuss future security assistance and expanded economic ties in a meeting on the sidelines of the new president’s inauguration on Friday.

Africa Buhari