President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, stated that Nigerians now know the truth about Boko Haram.
The President said citizens have now seen that the insurgency has neither religious nor ethnic underpinning.
He spoke at a meeting with Karin Ahmad Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at State House, Abuja.
Buhari added that with concerted public enlightenment, it had become clear to the people that Boko Haram was a perversion of religion, rather than Islamic ideology.
“God is justice. You can’t kill innocent people, and shout; Allah Akbar (God is great). It’s either you don’t know that God at all, or you are simply being stupid
“To say Western education is unacceptable (Haram) is very fraudulent. That is why we are fighting them, and educating the people. And we are succeeding a lot”, he said.
Buhari said his government came in when things were very bad, but have been people about the insurgency.
“Education is fundamental. Religion and ethnicity are out of it. Some people have just made it a lifestyle to cause confusion, destruction and death”, he noted.
In his remarks, Khan said extremism was like cancer, which spreads and can also recede.
The prosecutor called what Boko Haram does in collaboration with Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) “perversion of religion”.
He said the ICC believes in complementarity, “which promotes collaboration, as against confrontation”.
Khan urged Nigeria and other Sahel/Lake Chad basin countries to get the United Nations Security Council to refer the atrocities committed by terrorists to the ICC for investigation and trial.
