On 29 May 2015, Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as President of Nigeria. In his
inauguration speech he promised to bring "increased prosperity" to the country, and also vowed to tackle corruption and the insurgency from militant Islamic group Boko Haram which he described "a mindless, godless group, who are as far away from Islam as one can think." (Reported by the BBC, 29 May 2015)
Dennis Pastoor, persecution analyst of WWR, comments: "From a quality of democracy perspective, it"s positive that the political alternation happened peacefully, with Goodluck Jonathan conceding power without violence. Indeed, Buhari is the first opposition figure to win a presidential election in Nigeria since independence in 1960. It"s also positive that Buhari seems intent to repress Boko Haram, which has been responsible for much of the violence against Christians in recent years. However, the perpetuation of the violence against Christians in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria remains an enormous source of concern. As reported previously by WWR, under the shadow of Boko Haram, a
vicious circle of violence in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria perpetrated by Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen and settlers has allegedly led to the deaths of thousands of Christians, with hundreds of churches targeted or destroyed. Buhari, himself a Hausa-Fulani Muslim from northern Nigeria, might not be motivated to do much about this situation."
