Northern Nigeria officials are accusing their president Muhammadu Buhari of exaggerating the military's success against Boko Haram. An American commander noted that Buhari's comments about the militant group no longer holding any territory back in January is false.
Buhari told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the militants are "currently not holding any territory today as we speak" during a summit in Abu Dhabi last January. However, in a report by Fox News, the American commander, identified as General David Rodriguez testified recently that the extremist group still holds territory in northern Nigeria. He made his statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee that Boko Haram is still controlling a "significant territory" in the aforementioned area.
A local transport official in the Nganzai area of northeastern Borno state, Ngari Modu, backed Rodriguez's claims. ABC News reported that Modu said the statements of Rodriguez just proves that the Nigerian government is misleading the public over the real state of the issue. It remains unclear why Buhari said what he said during the summit in January.
Modu did say, however, that they are aware Boko Haram now lacks the capacity to carry out their "usual commando-like attacks" which is marching in and running down towns and villages. Modu pointed out that Boko Haram's weakening does not necessarily mean they are no longer around and are not controlling some territories, News 24 reported.
Modu added that he is one of the displaced people who stay in a camp in the city of Maidiguri as his home and his village remains to be a "no-go" zone.
Buhari promised that he will be stopping the rise of Boko Haram or other militant groups since he took office 10 months ago. Buhari has even replaced the military's leadership, resupplied the number of soldiers attacking the militant group, and moved the headquarters from Abuja to Maiduguri.
These efforts did change the status of the country as per Senator Mohammed Ndume of Borno. The soldiers were able to succeed in cutting off the supplies and access to food of Boko Haram an eventually, this could lead to the total eradication of the extremists thus the regaining of all territories.
