Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, November 15, said that if he were the president of Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency in the country would not take place.

Atiku made this known in Yola while speaking at the distribution of relief materials to over 50,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at American University of Nigeria (AUN) drawn from all over IDPs camps across the state to commemorate his 70th birthday celebrations.

He said: “If you recalled,while we are in office in 2002, such a small up raising ,very similar to this Boko Haram,reared their head in Yobe State,then,we smashed it immediately. So I think it requires a steadfast leadership,a leadership that is decisive.”

Atiku stated that, he would have used all resources at his disposal to ensure that Boko Haram did not take place in any part of North-Eastern Nigeria and anywhere else in the country. He said he would have made sure Nigerians never heard anything about it again, until he leaves government, adding that he regretted that Boko Haram took over seven of the 21 local government area of Adamawa.

The former vice president noted that the Adamawa Peace Initiative was put together to ensure peaceful coexistence of Adamawa State and its people. The relief materials he brought to the IDP were distributed at Saint Theresa Catholic Church, the Jamatu Nasrul Islam Headquarters and American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola.

The President of the ‘American University of Nigeria’ (AUN) Margie Ensign, lauded Atiku’s charitable efforts at sustaining Adamawa Peace Initiative for almost five years since creation;

“Nobody ever assisted us like you do within the period under review, in providing succour to the vulnerable like Atiku did,” she said.