SIR: President Muhammadu Buhari has done very well cutting his own salary and allowances. Nevertheless, someone suggested on “Dialogue”, a Radio Kwara interactive programme, presented by Aminulahi Dansaki, Saturday, June 06, 2015, that salary and allowance cutting should be formalized through legal procedure. There have been unholy gaps in the salaries and allowances of Nigeria’s political public office holders and those of other civil servants. The matter is better resolved equitably and commensurately by constitutional means than on triumphalistic benevolence grounds.

Beyond that suggestion, however, there can be no progress without peace, and there can be no peace without justice. If Buhari is just, he should investigate how Boko Haram became a terrorist group in 2009 till date, since Boko Haram existed 2002-2009 without violence.

Leaving injustice unaddressed is tantamount to leaving fire on one’s roof while sleeping inside the house. Otherwise, his government will be as bloody and as wasteful as that of his immediate predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ).

Much more importantly, Boko Haram is still strong, bombing, as predicted by Òrúnmìlà (the Yoruba oracular divinity). The suicide bomber in Maiduguri recently testified to what I said in one of my letters to the Editor, that if Buhari should decide to intensify war against Boko Haram, he would intensify suicide bombing along with it. The suicide bomber was reported as shouting Sai Buhari (hail Buhari) until the bomb exploded and killed five persons, including the bomber. The implication is that Boko Haram is responding to the president declaration that it was time for all-out war against Boko Haram. GEJ shifted the date of the 2015 general elections, and asked for six weeks to wage all-out war against Boko Haram, hoping to wipe out or neutralize the group. Òrúnmìlà said GEJ was joking, and that Boko Haram would outlive him. The result will not be different with Buhari unless he toes the path of justice and reconciliation.

• Pius Abioje, University of Ilorin.