My Presidential Speech
Fellow Nigerians, it is with a heavy heart, eyes laden with tears and mind occupied by grief that I speak to you today.
First I'll say may the souls of the dearly departed rest in perfect peace with hope that the bombings in Kano will be the last of its kind in the Nigerian territory.
Years from now Posterity will ask us 'Where were you when this all started?' & the answer will be 'We were here,helping them start it'.
In any war,there will be days when we lose a battle,when we lose face & even the dignity to call ourselves Nigerians. But we must not lose Faith in the oneness of this country because it is such faith that will give us the strength to win this war.
It is the strength in this diversity that has held us strong for 50 years & counting. It is this togetherness of being an Ijaw with an Igbo name with Hausas & Yorubas alike as friends. This Unity & Oneness has helped us become a force to reckon with all over the world.
And today as I speak with you, we face the biggest threat yet to that Unity & our National existence. That threat is Terrorism!
Terror does not start in a day, it takes years of organisation and motivation,good or bad. Maybe from our lack of planning or the lack to follow through on laws and implementations that would have curbed corruption and promoted transparency in both our public and private sectors and every dealings of government. Perhaps this is even motivated by our history of bad governance and public embezzlement or the continuous negligence of the people who have voted for us in the first place. I am not sure.
But we should make it clear, that nothing gets better by violence and there is no peace gained by mass killing of innocent people. If these attacks (or Boko Haram as a whole) is the handiwork of people who are tired of our ineptitude, of people who want Nigeria to start afresh and become a great land again, then we must ask them to, please, 'put down their guns' and talk to us. The government is all ears and ready to listen and turn a new leaf first with the resignation of the Inspector General of Police and the Head of Secret Service. The government is yours as much as it is mine. We all want to build a great Nigeria.
With that said, we hereby grant amnesty to all members of Boko Haram and ask that they lay down their weapons and join us in the re-structuring of Nigeria to make it great again. However, this amnesty will last for just one week, 7 days starting from today Monday, 23rd Jan, 2012 & will end on Monday 30th of Jan,2012.
However, say these men or women that call themselves Boko Haram do not heed our call and do as we have proposed then starting from the 31st of Jan,2012 these men or women have become the enemy of the Nigerian state and we will haunt them down wherever they are. We will chase them down to the cave or nest or wherever they call an abode and make sure that we bring them to Justice for the many lives that they have taken, for the tears shed and for the chaos that they have brought upon Nigerians. If this would take us across our borders, fellow Nigerians, have no fear for we will fight any gathering or government that backs such an evil. We will declare war or any such government or group of people.
Today 23rd of Jan is a declaration of peace in Nigeria and also a declaration of war. The perpetrators have been warned and options have been presented to them.
Seven, they say stands for perfection, so we have perfected our craft as a government and have started working on ourselves both internally and externally as you would begin to see in the coming days and weeks. Nigerians, home and abroad, should therefore have no fear and continue to stand strong and tall as you have always done. We are a proud people and let nothing put us to shame.
The 'never say die' Nigerian spirit will prevail no matter what the enemies of our democracy have planned. We will continue to work towards the safety and protection of Nigerians everywhere on the surface of the earth.
Continue to pray for Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.
Fellow Nigerians, it is with a heavy heart, eyes laden with tears and mind occupied by grief that I speak to you today.
First I'll say may the souls of the dearly departed rest in perfect peace with hope that the bombings in Kano will be the last of its kind in the Nigerian territory.
Years from now Posterity will ask us 'Where were you when this all started?' & the answer will be 'We were here,helping them start it'.
In any war,there will be days when we lose a battle,when we lose face & even the dignity to call ourselves Nigerians. But we must not lose Faith in the oneness of this country because it is such faith that will give us the strength to win this war.
It is the strength in this diversity that has held us strong for 50 years & counting. It is this togetherness of being an Ijaw with an Igbo name with Hausas & Yorubas alike as friends. This Unity & Oneness has helped us become a force to reckon with all over the world.
And today as I speak with you, we face the biggest threat yet to that Unity & our National existence. That threat is Terrorism!
Terror does not start in a day, it takes years of organisation and motivation,good or bad. Maybe from our lack of planning or the lack to follow through on laws and implementations that would have curbed corruption and promoted transparency in both our public and private sectors and every dealings of government. Perhaps this is even motivated by our history of bad governance and public embezzlement or the continuous negligence of the people who have voted for us in the first place. I am not sure.
But we should make it clear, that nothing gets better by violence and there is no peace gained by mass killing of innocent people. If these attacks (or Boko Haram as a whole) is the handiwork of people who are tired of our ineptitude, of people who want Nigeria to start afresh and become a great land again, then we must ask them to, please, 'put down their guns' and talk to us. The government is all ears and ready to listen and turn a new leaf first with the resignation of the Inspector General of Police and the Head of Secret Service. The government is yours as much as it is mine. We all want to build a great Nigeria.
With that said, we hereby grant amnesty to all members of Boko Haram and ask that they lay down their weapons and join us in the re-structuring of Nigeria to make it great again. However, this amnesty will last for just one week, 7 days starting from today Monday, 23rd Jan, 2012 & will end on Monday 30th of Jan,2012.
However, say these men or women that call themselves Boko Haram do not heed our call and do as we have proposed then starting from the 31st of Jan,2012 these men or women have become the enemy of the Nigerian state and we will haunt them down wherever they are. We will chase them down to the cave or nest or wherever they call an abode and make sure that we bring them to Justice for the many lives that they have taken, for the tears shed and for the chaos that they have brought upon Nigerians. If this would take us across our borders, fellow Nigerians, have no fear for we will fight any gathering or government that backs such an evil. We will declare war or any such government or group of people.
Today 23rd of Jan is a declaration of peace in Nigeria and also a declaration of war. The perpetrators have been warned and options have been presented to them.
Seven, they say stands for perfection, so we have perfected our craft as a government and have started working on ourselves both internally and externally as you would begin to see in the coming days and weeks. Nigerians, home and abroad, should therefore have no fear and continue to stand strong and tall as you have always done. We are a proud people and let nothing put us to shame.
The 'never say die' Nigerian spirit will prevail no matter what the enemies of our democracy have planned. We will continue to work towards the safety and protection of Nigerians everywhere on the surface of the earth.
Continue to pray for Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.
