Jonathan In Surprise Visits To Borno, Spends Three Hours With Soldiers, IDP’s

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday made a surprise visit to the

troubled northeast, which is in the grip of escalating Boko Haram violence
that threatens next month’s election.

An AFP reporter in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, said the president
arrived in the city shortly before 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) and was met at the
airport by the state governor Kashim Shettima.

He was accompanied by the chief of defence staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh,
military top brass and the national security advisor as well as about 200
soldiers.

The visit — Jonathan’s first to Maiduguri since March 2013 — was shrouded
in secrecy and came after a previous trip to the restive region in May
last year was cancelled.

Jonathan had planned to visit the remote town of Chibok, also in Borno,
after Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 girls from their school in a
crime that shocked the world.

The cancellation, reportedly for security reasons, dealt Jonathan a
further blow in his perceived woeful handling of the kidnapping crisis.

Boko Haram was founded in Maiduguri in 2002 and was largely peaceful until
a police and military crackdown against its then-leader Mohammed Yusuf and
his followers in 2009.

Jonathan’s last visit came before a state of emergency was declared in
Borno and neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa states in May 2013.

The special measures initially saw the Islamists forced from urban centres
but violence has steadily increased, particularly in the last six months,
and led to towns and villages overrun.

On January 3, Boko Haram attacked the Borno town of Baga, killing
hundreds, if not more, in what is feared could be its worst atrocity in a
six-year campaign to create a separate Islamic state.