Nigeria is safer now than it was 7 years ago — Defence Minister

The Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi says, Nigeria is safer than it was seven years ago.

Speaking on a Channels TV programme on Thursday, the defence minister said the Buhari administration has subdued Boko Haram, and urged Nigerians to appreciate the government’s effort.

“The problem of this country is that we always forget too soon. Look in 2015 backwards, 2014, 2013; if you remember the situation in this country. In Kano, 200 people were massacred in the mosque. The Emir of Kano was also attacked.

The road from Kano to Kaduna and Abuja were impassable. We had over 20 roadblocks from Kaduna to Abuja. It takes you almost 15 hours to reach where you are coming from. Even in Abuja, there were bombings. Everywhere in Nigeria in those years, you find that there were commotions, no security, people can’t even move.

When this government came, you know what we did. In Borno state, about 20 local governments were under capture by Boko Haram. But as soon as Buhari came, they were all subdued and we took over all these things and we even said we technically defeated this Boko Haram.

At the moment, most people think because of the sporadic attacks here and there, we lost control or we are not doing our best. Most of you know the problem of this country. The armed forces are overstretched.

The other thing that we may have gotten, we are not supported by some of these countries we call our friends. They are not ready to give us what we need — with the money we have and everything. But certainly, what I am trying to say is that Nigeria is better than what we were seven years ago,” he said.