Former Head of State and Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari has faulted the federal government’s clampdown on Boko Haram Islamic insurgents.

He accused the government of killing and destroying their houses while the Niger Delta militants were given special treatment by the government.

Buhari who spoke on Sunday on a Liberty Radio programme, Guest of the Week monitored in Kaduna also admitted that the road to the registration of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was rough, pointing out that the promoters of the party were well prepared for any hitch that may arise.

The former Nigerian leader said that unlike the special treatment given to the Niger Delta militants by the federal government, the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished by government.

While accusing President Jonathan of failing from the beginning to address the security situation in the country, Buhari said he has never been in support of the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa state.

According to Buhari “what is responsible for the security situation in the country is caused by the activities of Niger Delta militants. Every Nigerian that is familiar with what is happening knows this. The Niger Delta militants started it all.

And they will come and tell us another thing. Karma will never leave the house of APC. Confused government, arranging government...

Boko Haram began in 2003 after Obasanjo got re-elected after defeating Buhari at the polls.

Buhari is their field marshal

Na dem dem

The first open challenge to government authority in this area was by a tiny group of people who withdrew from the urban landscape of Maiduguri to rural Kanama in the Yunusari local government area of Yobe State in north-eastern Nigeria in December 2003. They referred to themselves as the “Nigerian Taleban” (sic).


Their choice of rural Kanama as camp was made with an eye for military details.

This site was carefully chosen for its remoteness and defensibility. The Kanama camp was forested and ensconced between two bodies of water near the Nigeria–Niger border. Trenches were dug and camouflaged across the only two access roads from Kanama and the exit road to Niger Republic, and sandbags were used to reinforce the defences. The militants then launched attacks on police stations and government buildings and generally wreaked havoc on the Yunusari, Tarmuwa, Borsari, Geidam, and Damaturu local government areas of Yobe State, between 21 December 2003 and 1 January 2004.

Between January and September 2004, this tiny group resurfaced and terrorised the inhabitants of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital and Damboa, Bama, and the inhabitants of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital and Damboa, Bama, Gwoza in neighbouring Borno State, attacking police stations and attempting prison breaks (Cook 2011: 10).



They finally took a last stand atop the Mandara Mountains, from where they were dislodged by the Nigerian military using artillery shells (ibid.). In October 2004, they took 12 policemen hostage in Kala Balge and not much was heard of the captives for a long time.

Members of this group were mostly young people in their twenties. This was a very diverse group, which also included females assigned domestic chores such as cooking and fetching firewood and water. Some of them were children of notable public figures, including a nephew of the then serving Governor of Yobe State, a son of the secretary to Borno State government, and five children of a local wealthy contractor.


Mohammed Yusuf was neither an active physical participant nor a prominent figure at Kanama.

However, he shared the same ideology as the group. The remainder of those who survived the Kanama misadventure joined Mohammed
Yusuf upon his return from exile in Saudi Arabia in 2005 to swell the group. The survivors of Kanama became the hawks within the Yusufiyya movement. Muhammad Ali - a veteran of al qaeda who fought in Afghanistan- , the leader of this incipient group, was in part responsible for initiating Mohammed Yusuf into militant jihadi ideology and world view.


Yusuf’s conversion from the mainstream Islam prevalent in his area of operation to the fringe Islamic movement which he nurtured and led occurred c. 2005. Even though Muhammad Ali was the dominant influence in the indoctrination of Mohammed Yusuf, it was the years under Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam that radicalised as well as apparently legitimised the dawah . This largely accounts for the sense of betrayal and the stupendous energy expended in attempts to dissuade Yusuf from his new-found ideology and chosen course by very prominent Wahhabi scholars such as Ja’afar Mahmud Adam, Sheikh Muhammad Abba Aji, and Imam Ali Gabchiya. Mohammed Yusuf usually agreed with Sheikh Ja’afar on the shortcomings and baselessness of his position in private disputations but reverted to his original position as soon as he conferred with his followers.