The Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria is largely fuelled by youth unemployment and poverty, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has said.
Buhari said this in an interview with Arise TV aired on Thursday and monitored by WITHIN NIGERIA.
The Nigerian leader said he believes his government has done a lot to fight the terrorists but the problem in the “North-East is very difficulty.”
He said he believes the majority of the Boko Haram members are Nigerians after being told so by the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum.
Meanwhile, the President turned down a question posed to him on Nigeria’s ban of microblogging platform, Twitter but insisted on armed response to the troubles in the South-east.
“I will keep that to myself,” Mr Buhari said about his stance on the Twitter ban, in the Arise TV exclusive interview broadcast.
The federal government recently banned Twitter in Nigeria, a move that followed the tech company’s deletion of a controversial tweet by Mr Buhari. In the deleted tweet, the president warned of armed responses to the insecurity in the South-east and alluded to the country’s Civil War, a comment many reported as abusive and insensitive.
The Twitter ban has been widely condemned with concerns that it hurts the fundamental right to expression and raises fears Nigeria is slipping into dictatorship.
During the interview, Mr Buhari was asked when the Twitter ban would be lifted. But he declined to comment, saying he would “keep” the answer to himself.