My victory wasn't a surprise -say GMB

     On Wednesday evening, Buhari told Cable News Network’s anchor, Christiane Amanpour, that   he was not surprised that he defeated Jonathan at the polls.

He explained that the successful merger of the APC in 2013 signalled the beginning of the end of Jonathan’s administration.

The newly elected president said, “I am not surprised over my victory because of how we came into the merger. The main opposition parties in Nigeria decided to come together to face the ruling party. That means we had an additional spread and politicians across the length and breadth of the country so I was not surprised.”

Buhari said immediately after his inauguration on May 29, he would begin a process of national reconciliation, especially in the violence-prone areas of the Niger-Delta and the North-East.

He said, “The actual division that is worth bothering about in terms of social instability and insecurity are in the North-East and the in the Niger-Delta which I think have been with this country long enough that we know how they started and what stage they are in now and we are confident that we will rapidly give attention to the insecurity in the country and I believe that we will deal with them within a few months in office.”

The former Head of State said the issue of insecurity would have been curbed long ago if the Jonathan administration had formed a regional alliance with Cameroon, Chad and Niger four years ago.

He said he would increase the tempo of the war against insurgency which, according to him, the President started getting right in January this year.

Buhari said, “If you recall, the Nigerian soldiers, out of all ethical expectations were giving interviews to foreign journalists that they were being sent to face the terrorists and were not doing well because of the lack of weapons, poor training and leadership.

“And the National Assembly attempted to conduct a hearing by finding out how much was approved by the National Assembly for budgetary allocation for weapons and training in the last four years and they wanted to invite the service chiefs and the chief of defence staff but the administration scuttled the hearing so the performance of the military is being affected by corruption in the system.”

Descibing himself as a converted democrat, he denied engaging in extrajudicial killings during his military administration.

When asked how he would cushion the effect of the drop in global oil price, the president-elect said he would revive the agricultural   and   mining sectors and block all holes through which public funds are siphoned.