Nigerian officials reached a preliminary agreement with multinational oil firms to pay back the $800 million Nigeria owes the oil suppliers in an effort to bring an end to the country’s dire fuel shortage.
The President of Chad, Idriss Deby, visited the Nigerian capital Abuja today to meet with both outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan and President-elect Muhammadu Buhari on how to best jointly combat the looming threat of Boko Haram. Speaking to reporters, Deby lamented that cooperation with Nigeria could use improvement, and that such coordination has been a problem in the past.
On April 14, 2014, the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram abducted more than 300 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok, cementing their international reputation as one of the most ruthless and dangerous terror groups in the world. One year later, more than 200 of those girls remain missing, and Nigeria’s president-elect is making no promises to find them.
A group of an estimated 20 Boko Haram terrorists attacked a northeastern Nigerian village on Sunday night after gathering Muslims during evening prayers, claiming to be preachers, and bombing the village’s mosque while shooting anyone in sight. The attack differs from many as the Islamist group tends to target Christian populations.
The Nigerian people have spoken, and they have elected a former military dictator from the nation’s Muslim north to defeat Boko Haram. President-elect Muhammadu Buhari vowed on Wednesday, in a more extensive second statement on his election victory, to “spare no effort” against the terrorist threat.
General Muhammadu Buhari has officially won Nigeria’s presidential elections, after running for the chief executive office in 2003, 2007, and 2011, and ruling the country as a military dictator between 1984-1985. In his acceptance speech, Buhari thanked his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, for conceding defeat peacefully and congratulated Nigerians for having, like him, “embraced democracy.”
Perhaps the greatest success of Nigeria’s elections held last Saturday is that the Islamist terror group Boko Haram has failed to steal the biggest headlines for itself. Former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari is currently leading the polls with half a million more votes that incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in an election marked more by allegations of fraud than terrorist violence.
Nigeria’s electoral commission began releasing the results of its Saturday presidential election on Monday, as delays triggered by protests, Boko Haram attacks, and faulty election technology marred an election already postponed by Islamist violence.
