President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the military and police to deal ruthlessly with insurgents and other criminals across the country.
The president made this public on Thursday in Abuja while fielding questions from journalists on a live television programme.
Buhari, who expressed the confidence that the order would yield positive results within weeks, recalled that he had in the past visited Chad, Niger and Cameroon as part of efforts to promote good neighbourliness and security at the nation’s borders.
Warning that the country might experience food shortage, Buhari said that there was the need to decisively tackle insurgents who are keeping farmers away from their farms.
The president also defended the administration’s appointments, insisting he made them on merit.
Specifically, he said the appointment of Maj.-Gen. Farouk Yahaya as Chief of Army Staff was well deserved having passed through the ranks and emerging a former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole
“They trained in Zaria or Abeokuta, they come through the ranks and because they served under all the circumstances, the crises and everything and they gradually rise to the status.
“And you think, you will just pick somebody just to balance up.
“These positions have to be earned. There are people who have been there for 10 to 15 years,” he said.
The president, who expressed the hope that Nigerians would be fair to him while assessing his administration, also urged them to question previous regimes on what they did with the nation’s humongous earnings.
