Jonathan should declare war on Boko Haram, says Chief Falae

Two eminent Nigerians spoke yesterday on the protracted insurgency in the Northeast and the alleged Federal Government’s complicity in Boko Haram’s activities.

Former Finance Minister Chief Olu Falae yesterday advised President Goodluck Joanthan to declare war on the sect.

“I have said it that if I were the President of the country, I would have declared war on Boko Haram,” he said.

The former minister spoke in Abuja with the Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, at the inaugural media briefing of the Credible Alternative Alliance (CAA).

Falae said: “There should be an opportunity for everyone to vote without fear. The government should ensure that it does not compromise. Anybody who is disrupting the election process is an enemy of the country.

“Boko Haram is not only killing people but also taking territories. I think war should be declared. We do not know who they are; we do not know if they are our citizens. So, the government should declare war on them. They are threatening the peace of the country; so, a war on them is the way out. The solution is to wipe them out. The government should not negotiate with them.”

Musa, a former Kaduna State governor, alleged that the Federal Government planned to use Boko Haram to destabilise the 2015 elections.

He said: “The solution to Boko Haram is that we should find out who is Boko Haram? Who are the people funding them? We hear that Boko Haram was founded for the purpose of the 2015 elections.

“Their plan is to make every Nigerian insecure to come out and vote. This plan will afford the ruling party the opportunity to rig the elections and declare itself the winner. It wants to make it impossible for the elections to hold so that it can continue in office.

“The 1999 constitution says that the President can only hand over to an elected President. So, if there is no election, the incumbent President can continue in office. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is colourless. You cannot predict it. The Federal Government is incompetent towards the issue of the Chibok schoolgirls.”

CAA, the duo said, is a nationwide mass democratic and electoral movement comprising political parties, political associations, civil society groups and individual Nigerians.

They said the alliance was coalescing into a democratic and electoral alliance to contest, support and promote the interest of credible and patriotic candidates for next year’s presidential elections among other elective positions.

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