‘It’s Democracy in raw form’ – Okonjo Iweala links Boko Haram to 2015 elections

Last updated: 2014/04/29 at 7:43 AM

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Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has said that Boko Haram insurgency in the North could be linked to the 2015 elections.

She made the remarks whilst being interviewed by Reuters in her vehicle enroute to the airport in order to board a flight to New York.

“We tend to notice that when the electoral cycle comes in, all these things heat up. What we are going through now is democracy in raw form, because people are fighting for power and they will use anything to get there … and to win the election,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

“There is no war… there is an insurgency. We are not in a Colombia situation,” she added, rejecting comparisons with Colombia which has, for decades, battled a major left-wing insurgency that often affected large swathes of its national territory.

She disclosed that the Federal Government is working on a multi-pronged strategy to end the Boko Haram crisis. The plans include recruitment into the armed forces, increased spending on defence and a Marshall plan to lift the North east region out of poverty and underdevelopment.

She said Boko Haram is receiving cross border financing from Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

“We need to look at the source of this financing,” she said, stressing that President Goodluck Jonathan was working to obtain regional cooperation to remove Boko Haram’s support from Jihadi groups in the Sahel.

She said that although the impact of the five-year Boko Haram insurgency had cut half a percentage point off Nigeria’s GDP last year, it could be contained.

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