President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he inherited a country at crossroads with bombs detonating in cities across Nigeria when he assumed office in May 2015.
He, however, said his government has been able to manage Nigeria’s security crisis in the last seven years.
Buhari disclosed this at the passing-out parade and commissioning ceremony of cadets of Regular Course 69 of the Nigerian Defence Academy in Afaka, Kaduna State
“When this government came in 2015, we inherited a country at crossroads with bombs going off with frightening frequency even in our cities and we came in to manage the crisis,” he said.
A total of 239 cadets including those from sister African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger Republic, Chad, and Uganda are passing out from the Academy as junior military officers.
The President charged the cadets to replicate the spirit of social cohesion they learned at the NDA and be incorruptible models to society, noting that they emerged in the era of expanding global security threats.
The President again pledged that his administration will fulfill its promise to neutralise Boko Haram terrorism in the North-East.
He acknowledged that the security challenges in the country have evolved and assumed other dimensions in some areas, noting that his government has been deploying both military and non-military methods including amnesty for repentant terrorists to arrest the situation.
The President used the occasion to salute the military for the release of the 23 remaining kidnapped victims of a Kaduna-Abuja train that was attacked on March 28, 2022.
“Let me also commend our military for both kinetic and non-kinetic methods they adopt in tackling some of our security challenges.
“Just yesterday (Wednesday), relief came for our country as the remaining 23 victims of the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna train attack were released by the heinous terrorists. This feat was not achieved without the intervention of our military,” Buhari said.
“I say bravo to our soldiers, officers and gentlemen,” he saluted military operatives.
Among the dignitaries present at the NDA parade include all the service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali; Senate President Ahmed Lawan; the governors of Niger and Kaduna states, as well as National Assembly members.
Kaduna has witnessed some unprecedented terrorist attacks in the country recently. In August 2021, daring bandits attacked NDA permanently in the state, killed two officers and kidnapped one other.