Fight against corruption: I have never lost sleep over comments that I am being selective- Buhari

President Buhari says he never lost sleep over comments by some people accusing him of being selective in his fight against corruption. The President said this while fielding questions from pressmen in India where he is attending the 3rd Summit of the India-Africa Forum

"I cannot tell you by heart how much we have recovered. For those who are saying I am being selective, if they were not involved in corruption, they wouldn't mind. They will even encourage us to get whoever has compromised his position in the trust giving to him. So I see it in the papers, I watch it on the screen, but I have never lost a sleep on it because those that are not corrupt should only encourage us to even do more. For those that are interested in the safety of those that have abuse trust in the country will go to any length including bribing people to give false information. I am not being selective. Whoever is caught, the documents that incriminates him or her will be taken to the courts to prosecute him for Nigerians to know who abused trust"he said

 Asked if there will be an extension in time limit if the military fails to destroy Boko Haram by December this year, he said

"The main objective is to get rid of boko haram. Whether it is within the time limit we give to the military or outside it, we will maintain and focus on our objective. We will support them. Normally I am an optimistic person. Those that have already given up, I am sorry for them but I remain confident that our military and other law enforcement agencies are more than equal to Boko haram"he said

Reacting to the row about Amaechi's confirmation in the senate, he said

"This is a team work.  I say I know people but there are people I accept from other people in our team that I trust without even knowing them. Maybe the ones that had problems in the national assembly, I doubt if I ever met them in my life. I didn't walk into the presidency alone. I have to depend on all the three tiers of government, from all parts of the country. We cannot walk outside the constitution which says that there must be a cabinet representative from each state.  There used to be 42 ministers. I I think we will be lucky if we can have half of that  now because we cannot afford it. Others may not be substantive ministers but they will sit in the cabinet because that is what the constitution says and we cannot operate outside the constitution".

On whether he will be reducing the number of ministries, he said  "Of course"

On what he will want to be remembered for, Buhari said "If we survive it, I want to be remembered that Nigerians found out that I was genuine, I was a real patriot . Not only that I fought the civil war, I also fought corruption to a standstill"