If you are starving and young and in search of answers as to why your life is so difficult, fundamentalism can be alluring. We know this for a fact because former members of Boko Haram have admitted it: They offer impressionable young people money and the promise of food, while the group's mentors twist their minds with fanaticism.
We should have solved the current insecurity in the Northeast and South by now. Are the states able to shoulder the burden of the police? You cannot just give someone guns and ammunition, train him, and refuse to pay him.
As long as we can establish the bona fides of the leadership of Boko Haram, we are prepared as a government to discuss with them how to get the girls back. But we have not established any evidence of a credible leadership.
The federal government of Nigeria has always preferred to talk to bona fide Boko Haram leaders about the release of the Chibok girls, but we must have a credible person or persons that will intervene, preferably United Nations or NGOs.
I think we should be very worried because, with technology, Boko Haram and other terrorists have become very mobile in all continents, not only in Africa but also in Europe, America, and Asia.
We will encourage our countrymen to stay at home, work hard, and make a respectable living at home.
A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the vice-president to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead.
Boosting education will be a direct counterbalance to Boko Haram's appeal. In particular we must educate more young girls, ensuring they will grow up to be empowered through learning to play their full part as citizens of Nigeria and pull themselves up and out of poverty.
How is it that Nigeria's military, which has a good record across West Africa, cannot claim back to 14 out of 774 local governorates from Boko Haram? They have to ask for mercenaries from South Africa? How the mighty has fallen!
I would like to thank President Goodluck Jonathan for his display of statesmanship in setting a precedent for us that has now made our people proud to be Nigerians wherever they are.
There are many reasons why vulnerable young people join militant groups, but among them are poverty and ignorance. Indeed Boko Haram - which translates in English, roughly, as 'Western Education Is Sinful' - preys on the perverted belief that the opportunities that education brings are sinful.
The misappropriation of resources provided by the government for weapons means the Nigerian military is unable to beat Boko Haram.
As far as the constitution allows me, I will try to ensure that there is responsible and accountable governance at all levels of government in the country. For I will not have kept my own trust with the Nigerian people if I allow others abuse theirs under my watch.
The thing that the Nigerian government will do is to secure the environment. If the environment is not secured, then unfortunately, the investments wouldn't be coming in.
We are asking Nigerians for their cooperation. They shouldn't expect miracles to happen a couple of months after we've taken over because the destruction took so many years - 16 years of the ruling party's rule of this country.
I think, technically, we have won the war because people are going back into their neighbourhoods. Boko Haram as an organised fighting force - I assure you that we have dealt with them.
The foreign companies, especially oil prospects and development companies, have been in Nigeria for about two generations - 40 years and above and so on. So, they know the environment. They stayed that long. They continue to invest because they know the potential Nigeria has in oil and gas and the capacity of the people to learn and work hard.
We know we are on the right path. Our journey is not finished, but we have come a long way.
