President Muhammadu Buhari was interviewed by Martine Dennis on Al Jazeera while he was in Qatar last week.
During
the interview which Aljazeera broadcast on Sunday, Buhari refused to
watch a video showing the shooting of unarmed pro-Biafra protesters.
Watch video of the interview below, and see the video of the shooting further down:
The
president spoke against the backdrop of the renewed agitation for the
actuation of the republic of Biafra. Speaking to Aljazeera television
during his last visit to Qatar, president Buhari recalled that over two
million lives were lost during the Nigeria civil war between 1967 to
1970 on the demand of a Biafran state.
He was asked about the shooting of
unarmed pro-Biafran protesters in Aba, Abia State on 9 February this
year and Dennis suggested he could watch the video. But Buhari pointedly
refused to watch and then said the pro-Biafrans “should not be joking
with Nigerian security”.
The Biafran part of the interview came
towards the end after another train-wreck of a performance from the
president. Despite Dennis’s friendly disposition, unlike her Al Jazeera
colleague Mehdi Hasan, who tore Buhari to shreds in an interview on the
channel in October last year, the president continued to show why his
dwindling band of supporters would cringe with embarrassment whenever he
faces any interviewer that does more than toss him soft balls.
Watch the entire video of the Aljazeera interview below
President Mohammasu Buhari stated pointblank that Nigeria would not tolerate the state of Biafra.
He said “At least two millions Nigerians
were killed in the Biafra war. And for somebody to wake up may be they
weren’t born. Looking for Biafra after two millions people were killed,
they are joking with the security and Nigeria won’t tolerate Biafra.”
Also speaking on the state of Nigerian
economy and the pressure to devalue the Naira , president Buhari stated
that Nigeria was prepared to go against the advice on International
Monetary Fund, IMF in that regard.
He maintained that the devaluation of
the Naira would not pay Nigeria, saying the country was purely an import
nation. He also stated their despite the plummeting crude oil prices in
the international market, it would pay Nigeria to remain in the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. “If it is against
our national interest, why can’t we go against the IMF advice?”
Buhari asks. “We were unable to diversify our economy, hence we are much more disadvantaged by the lower oil prices.
Nigeria will make the necessary sacrifice to remain in OPEC”, he said.
Asked to comment on the anti-terrorism
war, the president headed a sigh of relief that no local government area
of Nigeria was under the control of the Boko haram insurgents as was
the case when he assumed office in May 2015.
Watch the entire video of how Nigeria shot and killed pro-biafra protesters in Aba last month below:
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