issues battling the country.
Mehdi Hassan asked President Buhari on his 'fantasy' promise to end
Boko-Haram in Decemer, 2015.
In the interview, which won't be aired Friday night, the president
also reiterated his willingness to do a deal with Boko Haram to free
the kidnapped Chibok girls on the condition that the true leaders of
the sect are the ones to be dialogued with. "We said it and we meant
it," he said. "They have to prove to us that they are alive, they are
well, and then we can…negotiate with them.
We said it and we meant it. If we are satisfied that the girls are
alive." Asked whether he would offer financial payments, or a prisoner
release, to Boko Haram in return for the girls, he refrained from
ruling out either option, saying: "Well, it depends on the
negotiations with the leadership of Boko Haram."
Still, he expressed assurance that Boko Haram will be defeated by the
end of 2015, saying: "As soon as the rainy season comes, which is by
the end of the year… Boko Haram will virtually be out of their main
stronghold and that will be the end of it…. Attacks by Boko Haram on
townships, on military installations, will certainly stop."
He also said he had not seen the Amnesty International report from
June 2015, 'Nigeria: Stars on their shoulders: Blood on their hands',
in which the human-rights group documented abuses, torture and
unlawful killings by the Nigerian armed forces and urged the
government to prosecute a group of officers and senior commanders. "I
haven't received that report personally," he said. "If I get those
documents… I assure you that I will take action as Commander in
Chief."
Asked about his record as a military dictator in the mid-1980s, and
the alleged human-rights abuses which occurred on his watch, Buhari
said: "If there is any injustice that can be proved against me when I
was there, I will gladly apologize." However, he refused to concede
that his 'war against indiscipline' in the 1980s featured any such
"injustice".
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