Coronavirus: Boko Haram leader jabs Trump, mocks social distancing

Abubakar Shekau, factional leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group says it is evil that birthed the coronavirus pandemic in an audio message released on late Tuesday on Twitter by a Nigerian news analysis portal, Hum Angle.

Shekau speaks in Hausa – a dominant language used across most parts of northern Nigeria – in an address that lasts a minute and 45 seconds. “Don’t attempt to shift blame, it is evil that brought about this pandemic. Wherever it is from, we seek divine protection,” he begins by saying.

Seemingly abreast of safety regulations surrounding the pandemic, he mocks the measures by stressing how for them nothing has changed in the way the live their daily lives.

“Here we are, we pray five times daily. We offer our (Friday) congregational prayers and we stick together. We join hands, we eat from one bowl, we are doing very very very well. We have anti-virus. You have coronavirus, we have anti-coronavirus,” he adds.

“We thank God for the state of health we find ourselves in. That is the power of God, in today’s world but we pray five times, we fast, we amputate hands and we flog adulterers we are enforcing the law.

In the latter part of his message, he takes a dig at American president Donald Trump and three presidents in the Lake Chad region. He is heard insulting presidents of Nigeria, Chad and Niger. The message is interspersed with background track with intermittent sound of gunshots.

“We thank you God for this pandemic. We thank you that it (the pandemic) has surfaced in the times of Trump, the abnormal one. The time of Idris Deby (uses an expletive) and the time of Buhari and Mahamadou Issoufou, the one who does the bidding of the French,” he calls on people to repent and earn their praise if they don’t want to be cursed.