Lai Mohammed: Nigeria winning the war against insurgency

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, says Nigeria is winning the war against insurgency.

Speaking when he featured on Focus on Africa, a BBC programme, Mohammed backed up his claim with the fact that insurgents have been surrendering to troops in recent times.

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However, the minister admitted that like Taliban, Boko Haram is driven by an ideology that is difficult to overcome.

“In the north-east, we are facing the challenge of the Boko Haram, which is purely an ideologically driven terrorist group. What is happening in Afghanistan presently is a good pointer.

“It shows that a movement driven by ideology is very difficult to overcome. The US, having spent 20 years, trillions of dollars, thousands of lives lost, it took the Taliban only a few weeks to come.

“This is what people should appreciate about fighting terrorism. The good news is that insurgents today are surrendering in droves and we are going after them. The truth of the matter is that the Nigerian government is winning the war against insurgents.

“The evidence of that is the number of insurgents that are now surrendering and they are not only surrendering their weapons but are also coming with their relations and their families.”

The minister also rejected the claim that Nigeria is a failed state.

“A failed state is not a state where you have challenges only in one corner of the country. A failed state is a state where you have general paralysis everywhere.”

“I live in Nigeria, I work in Nigeria and I travel all around Nigeria and I can tell you Nigeria is not a failed state. I can tell you, yes we have challenges with banditry, we have challenges with separatist groups, it does not make this country, Nigeria, a failed state.

“If what is happening in the last few weeks is anything to go by, we are winning this war,” he said.

On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari charged service chiefs to go tough against criminal elements, saying he does not want to leave office as a failure.

There is currently a high level of insecurity across the country.