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Buhari tells how meeting Chibok girls parents will affect his health

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Chibok and the shame of a nation

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained why he has avoided regularly meeting the parents of abducted Chibok school girls, saying it was because of his emotional state.

According to President Buhari, such is not good for his emotional state.

The President, who spoke in an interview with CNN’s Christine Amanpour, lamented the plight of the parents, saying he could not imagine his own daughter in such situation.

“I saw the families as a group twice. The first time, they came to visit my wife. The second, they came as a group to see me, and the less I see them the better for my own emotional balance.

“I try to imagine my 14-year-old year daughter missing for more than two years. I try to imagine what condition are they in. A lot of the fathers would rather see their graves, than imagine them under such condition.”

The President also said he was opposed to the idea of showing a proof of life video to the parents, adding that there was no point raising their hopes when the girls had not been rescued.

It would be recalled that CNN had made public a video of some of the girls during the second anniversary of their abduction. The video was reportedly sent to negotiators by their captors.

“I have not seen that video and even if I see it, I will be very careful about showing it to the families. There is no point to deliberately raise the hope of the families if you can’t meet them.

“If we know where they are, then we can organise to secure them, but if they have been divided in groups of five, ten, all over this region of Lake Chad commission, that is Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger, there is no way we can spontaneously and simultaneously attack all those locations and get the girls and the important thing to us is to get them alive.”

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