Popular News From Popular Sites: Nigeria can handle Boko Haram, part of 'raw democracy', says minister

Monday, April 28, 2014

Nigeria can handle Boko Haram, part of 'raw democracy', says minister

Nigeria's Finance Minister Okonjo-Iweala speaks during an interview in Abuja By Pascal Fletcher ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria is preparing a special development plan for its poor, violence-hit northeast and increasing spending to counter an Islamist revolt there that could dent growth in Africa's No. 1 oil producer if it worsens, the country's finance minister said. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters that although the impact of the five-year Boko Haram insurgency had cut half a percentage point off Nigeria's GDP last year, she believed it could be contained and insisted the country was not facing a wider conflict as it heads for elections next year. "There is no war ... there is an insurgency," Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview conducted on Sunday in her car in Abuja as she headed to the airport to fly to New York. Okonjo-Iweala said Boko Haram, who have raided schools, churches, government offices and security posts in their fight to carve out an Islamist enclave, mostly affected around 5 percent of the nation's territory, the northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.




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