President Goodluck Jonathan has once again hit back at All Progressives Congress,APC Presidential Candidate,General Muhammadu Buhari on the issue of lingering insecurity.
Though Buhari has repeatedly slammed Jonathan’s failure to tackle Boko Haram and vowed to checkmate the insurgents ,Jonathan has said Buhari’s record proves the contrary, because he refused to equip the Nigerian soldiers while serving as military Head of State.
Speaking at the flag-off of his presidential campaign in Lagos,Jonathan said, “Somebody who wakes up and tells you people of 23 years old that he wants to fight insecurity, ask him when he was the Head of State, did he buy one rifle for the Nigerian soldiers?
“These people did not but anything for the Nigerian soldiers.
“They refused to equip them, ask them what they did with the defence budget that the whole time they were in office they couldn’t equip the Armed Forces.
“No country equips Armed Forces overnight because what they need are quite expensive, they are built over the years.
“Even if you spend $10 billion today, you cannot equip the Air Force, equip the Navy, equip the Army. The capacity is built over a period of time.
“They refused to build the capacity, they instigated crisis and now they are telling us they are going to fight insecurity.
“Ask them and they will answer”.
He told the crowd that Henry Okah’s MEND tried to assassinate him in the now controversial independence day bombing.The president’s latest assertion may come to many as strange because Jonathan pointedly absolved Niger Delta militants of involvement in that 2010 blast.
MEND had earlier this week announced its support for the APC presidential candidate ,Buhari in the forthcoming election.
