Encomium
Today, Nigeria is in mourning for the senseless loss of lives seen in Borno State and Katsina State over the last 48 hours.
President Muhammadu Buhari holds the victims in his thoughts and his prayers.
The perpetrators will be brought to justice–and they are running scared.
Fifty-six thousand (56,000) Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists have surrendered to the authorities in a year and still counting.
That these terrorists and bandits have been reduced to scavenging from our artisanal miners and farmers for survival is evidence that they are backed into a corner.
This will be small comfort to the family members and loved ones of those murdered this week. But it is in times like these that we must be at our strongest.
Now more than ever Nigerians must come together, in proud defiance of those who would seek through terror and violence to divide us along religious, political or ethnic lines.
And so while we are in mourning for those we have lost, let us face these cowards already fading in strength, number and willpower as one.
Let us show them that Nigerians will not be swayed by terror. Let us show them that Nigerians will not be divided. Let us show them we will not be defeated.
Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
