Buhari: APC presidential candidate

Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari, has ruled out negotiating with the Boko Haram sect if he wins the 28 March election, according to a report by the BBC.

“Boko Haram is not interested in peace – if they are interested in peace how can they kill 13,000 Nigerians?” the former military ruler, who is currently in the UK, told the BBC adding that at 72, he is “fit as a fiddle” and that allegations of his ill-health are incorrect.

Buhari is challenging President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the toughest election and most closely contested since military rule ended in 1999.

The elections were postponed from 14 and 28 February to 28 March and 11 April, six weeks from the earlier scheduled dates after Nigeria’s security chiefs said they could not guarantee security as they would be confronting the Boko Haram, the group which has waged a six-year insurgency in the north-east of Nigeria and in the last year taken over areas of the country where it has declared a caliphate.

Buhari, who had earlier commended the Nigerian troops for their successes so far, further told the BBC that force was the only option to deal with the insurgents, as peace was not something they wanted.

“Why should they go and kill children when they are sleeping in their dormitories? Why should they bomb churches and mosques and market places and motor parks. They are not interested in peace,” he told BBC Focus on Africa television during an interview in London.

If he won the election, Buhari vowed that no more territory would be taken by the militants and that it would be injustice to grant the sect any amnesty considering the number of people its members had killed.

He reiterated that he did not believe that the poll postponement was justified as other countries with security issues, such as Afghanistan and Syria, had managed to hold elections.

In response to the PDP’s allegations that the former military general was in London for a health check-up, he said he would race anyone who did not think he was fit.

“I’ve just toured 35 states of the 36 states, I have conducted town hall meetings in Lagos, in Kano, in Abuja and those that are accusing me I will challenge them [to a] cross-country rally and see how long they will last,” he told the BBC.

Buhari’s brief rule in the 1980s is remembered for its strict campaign against indiscipline and corruption. He promised that an anti-corruption policy would again be enforced from the time he took office.

“When we get to the government we will draw a line… whoever steals from the treasury, whoever misappropriates or misplaces public trust in him he will have to answer for it,” he told the BBC.