If there’s one recurring theme since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office, it’s his ability to make controversial statements that are often times misinterpreted, taken out of context or too literally.

In the last year, President Buhari has kept away from the press preferring instead to speak through his spokespersons and other government officials.

The few times he did speak -mostly to international correspondents- the president made some statements that many consider controversial, if not troubling.

Here are the top 6 controversial statements made by the President since he assumed office:

1) Troubling comments at the Presidential media chat

– At his first ever Presidential media chat, the President said he had no idea where the girls were despite his campaign promise that he will find and rescue the missing girls.

He said, “The honest truth is that I don’t know the actual place and state of the girls. The more reason we are trying to be very careful before we negotiate with any group. Before we negotiate with any group, we must make sure they show us the actual location of the girls. We must make sure they are complete.”

“At the moment, we don’t really know if the girls are alive or not but from intelligence report, the insurgents have divided them into groups so we could not easily locate them.”

– On why he won’t obey a court ruling on Nnamdi Kanu and Sambo Dasuki

Speaking at the Presidential media chat in December 2015, President Buhari said this about Nnamdi Kanu, leader of secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB):

“The one you called Kanu, do you know he has two passports? One Nigerian, one British and he came to this country without using any passport? Do you know that he brought sophisticated equipment into this country and started broadcasting for Radio Biafra? There is a treasonable charge against him and I hope the court will listen to the case.”

On the continued detention of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, he said, “Technically, if you see the kind of atrocities those people committed, if they jump bail? I am sorry to say this publicly…the former president just wrote to the governor of the CBN and said give N40 billion to someone while you have two million Internally Displaced Persons, what kind of country do you want to run?”

– Speaking on the alleged marginalization of Igbos by his administration, President Buhari said, “They say they are marginalised but they have not defined the extent of marginalisation. Who is marginalising them? Where? Do you know? Choosing a minister is not a matter of ethnicity, it is a matter of the constitution. I am limited by what the constitution says that there must be a member of the executive council from each state. There is a lot of partisan politics in it.”

“Who is the Minister of State for Petroleum? Is he not an Igbo? Who is the governor of the CBN? Is he not an Igbo? Who is the Minister of Labour? Who is the Minister of Science and Technology? What do they want? I stood elections and I won, I am limited by the constitution, I have a member of every state in the Federal Executive Council and I have to listen to them when I sit as chairman. That is the limit the constitution gave me.”

 

2) Justification for lopsided appointments

In the early days of his administration, President Buhari was accused of making lopsided appoints that favored the North more than the South.

While defending his appointments, the President made the following statement on BBC Hausa Service.

“If they will do justice to me, as an elected Nigerian president, let them look at the Constitution a Nigerian president works with, there are people who will closely work with me that don’t need to be taken to the Senate.”

“If I select people whom I know quite well in my political party, whom we came all the way right from the APP, CPC and APC, and have remained together in good or bad situation, the people I have confidence in and I can trust them with any post, will that amount to anything wrong?”

“I have been with them throughout our trying times, what then is the reward of such dedication and suffering?”

“They did not defect because of positions, they did not involve themselves in the pursuit of personal gains, and they accepted their fate throughout our trying moments.”

“What is wrong if I make you the secretary (of the federal government) because I have confidence that things will go normal?”

 

3) Further justification of lopsided appointment

During an official visit to the Unites States, President Buhari spoke at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

There he said:

“(Going by election results), the constituencies that gave me 97% can not in all honesty be treated, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5%. I think these are political realities. While, certainly there will be justice for everybody but the people who voted, and made their votes count, they must feel the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place. I think this is really fair.”

 

4) The statement that birthed the #NigeriansAreNotCriminals trend

During an interview with UK Telegraph, the President all but called Nigerians criminals.

He said, “We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way to salvage that.”

“Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking.”

“I don’t think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country.”

 

5) If you can’t afford it, withdraw your child

While on his state visit to Qatar, President granted an interview to Aljazeera, wherein he said, “We cannot devalue the Naira because some people have their children in schools abroad.”

Buhari added that, “we have to consider the consequences on the economy and Nigeria as a whole. So if some parents are finding it difficult to pay, let them return their kids to Nigeria to complete their education.”

 

6) Sensitive and emotional President

Speaking with CCN Christine Amanpour in London, President Buhari said meeting with the parents of missing Chibok girls is detrimental to his emotional state.

“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 old 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.”