President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that Boko Haram sponsors planned to split the country but was defeated.

Speaking after being decorated with the African Award for Strengthening the Peace, Buhari said backers of such projects never meant well.

The President said;

“Boko Haram is false. You say western education is ungodly. It’s fraudulent. Whoever is financing them just wants to split the country. All the grounds they seized before we came have been recovered, and the rebuilding process is going on well.”

Buhari also revealed that his administration has spent $1bn to recover territories seized by terrorists.

According to him, these monies would have been better spent on critical infrastructure such as healthcare and education.

He added;

“When I assumed power in 2015, Boko Haram held about two-thirds of Borno State, half of Yobe State, and a couple of local government areas in Adamawa State, all in the North-East of Nigeria.

“We have been able to retrieve these swathes of territories by investing over $1bn to acquire hard and software weaponry from the US and other friendly countries to carry out sustained operations against insurgency since 2015.

“Our Armed Forces and those of our partners in the Multinational Joint Task Force (consisting of Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Benin Republic and Nigeria) continue to demonstrate great bravery while paying the ultimate price in securing our collective freedom.

“Despite the difficult times we face, we continue to spend very scarce and lean resources to ensure that we have a well-resourced military force to take on this task. Ideally, these are resources that could be spent on education, healthcare, infrastructure and other social services, but without peace, we have learnt the hard way that our children cannot go to school or seek good healthcare.”