“When Femi Adesina or myself speaks for the president, people should accept
that it is the president that is speaking. For this president, it is the
actions that should speak for him; he (Buhari) is not a showman, he doesn’t
have to be there.”“People should not personalise the issue. This country has problems, it requires the involvement of everyone, all hands must be on the deck to solve these problems –community leaders have a role, senators have a role, everyone has a role.”
“We need to be appreciative of the enormous risks that our security people are facing, they are making it possible for you and I to sleep well because they are exposing themselves on the frontline.
“So, for everybody to say there is no political will, is anybody complaining? Is the IG of police saying he is unable to do his job because he doesn’t have political support? This president allows you to do your job,”
… The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu
“I am not in a tussle of leadership with Governor Makinde, but he can’t come
out and say he is my leader, he is not my leader, No he is not. The fact that
my son is the governor and I had to get up when he comes to a function does not
mean he is my leader.“The gentleman is a governor and I must respect his office. Governor Makinde by all standard is the only governor in the Southwest, all South South leaders are PDP governors. Who is the leader of the governors? Because he is the only one we have, I used to be like that and I never said to anyone, I am the leader of the west”
… Ayodele Fayose, Fmr. Governor of Ekiti State
“To be honest, the role of the armed forces and other security agencies have
really been very encouraging and we implore Nigerians to encourage us to do
more. “But if you are only waiting for success, nobody can predict anything, especially with the kind of war we are fighting. The new concept of everything is not so conventional as to predict that you can beat the enemy at your own pace.
“The only way a conventional warfare is fought is to know the strength of your enemy, his weaknesses and compare with what you have. Then, you can certainly predict whether or not you can win the war.
“But the most important thing is the ability of the people that you are fighting for to appreciate the effort the military is putting in and encourage them to do better.
“Today, everybody seems to rely on success, without corresponding interest to assist the military. However, I think Nigerians are getting it better. They know that the military cannot do it alone and they are doing all their best to see that they assist us in whatever manner — intellectually, materially and anything that will make us to get out of this thing, especially, in the area of intelligence.
“We want to know what these people are up to; we want to know what they are doing so that we can predict where to hit them hard. “I am the minister of defence and the defence of this country is entirely my responsibility. We have the mandate to ensure that the lives and properties of people are protected.
“I will also refer you to the promise Mr President made to Nigerians in 2015, that is, on security, economy and corruption. If in the process, the policy has had some people who think that they should be given independence to do what they want to do in order to bring this country down, so be it.
“We cannot sit and then you shoot at somebody and we allow you to go because somebody thinks that you are one that can kill and go away. Please, give us time; we are in a state where we want everybody to look up and see what he can do for this country, not what the country can do for you,”
…MINISTER of Defence, Major-General Bashir Magashi (retd)
