Femi Adesina: 'It's just one bombing, there was a time it used to be 10'

President Muhammadu Buhari's spokesperson, Femi Adesina, says security across Nigeria and in the restive northeast region, has improved, despite ceaseless terrorist attacks targeting communities and vulnerable persons every other day.

Terrorist sect Boko Haram, which seeks a hard-line Islamic state from Nigeria's north, has been on a killing spree for months, beheading a priest, killing Christians on Christmas day, attacking travelers on major roads and bombing a mosque.

Adesina says while the latest attack on a Borno mosque is regrettable, Nigeria is better secured today than it was under former President Goodluck Jonathan who governed Nigeria from 2010 to 2015.

The spokesperson tells a ChannelsTV host that the security situation “is not as bad as you are making it seem."

He says the president’s promise to deal the terrorists a final blow is “well alive and the work continues,” adding that "there are many redeeming sides” to the country’s security situation.

“We know what the situation was as at 2015 and we know what it is today. Despite the reversals in security, it is still not as bad as it used to be in this country,” he adds.

"There was a bombing or two today, there was a time there were five, six, ten bombings in a day in this country.

President Goodluck Jonathan presents handover documents to President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 (Presidency) ece-auto-gen

"It is very bad to lose even a single soul in the country. But when we begin to make it seem it is all bad and bad, and no redeeming side to it, then it’s not proper.

“There are many redeeming sides to the security situation in the country compared to how president Buhari met it in 2015 and it is those who are affected most who can tell you, particularly, those who live in the north-east.”

Blaming the media

According to Adesina, reports from the “Nigerian media, social media, and some international agencies," would make it appear as though it's all over for Nigeria.

“(But) it is not,” he says. "The people living there will tell you that the difference between now and 2015 is the difference between heaven and hell.”

President Buhari, 77, rode to power in 2015 and 2019 partly on the back of a reputation as a former military general whose experience could come in handy in ending an insurgency that has bedeviled Nigeria since 2009.