President Muhammadu Buhari is more interested in finding a lasting solution to the Boko Haram insurgency and the farmers-herdsmen crisis in the country, instead of “cosmetic solutions”.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said this during a Skype interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“The President is interested in enduring solutions to what caused these clashes, not just cosmetic solutions,” Adesina said on Monday.

President Buhari visited Taraba earlier today and is expected to visit other states hit by Boko Haram attacks and farmers-herdsmen clashes, including Benue, Yobe and Rivers.

According to Adesina, the visits are part of the enduring solutions to the security issues in the country.

He noted that President Buhari would be visiting “sympathise with the people, to see them face to face, discuss with all the stakeholders, and then chart a way forward.”

“The President is going to those states to visit everyone; all stakeholders are going to be invited for meetings – traditional rulers, farmers, herdsmen, community leaders,” he added.

Responding to why President Buhari did not visit the states immediately after the incidents occurred, the President’s spokesman said the question had been answered in the statement he issued earlier.

He further denied claims that the visits were delayed for political reasons, stressing that the President thinks it is right to visit the states after studying the reports of the delegations he sent to the states.

“The opposite of reactive is proactive. If you say that the President should have been proactive, should he have visited before the clashes came? Those people who talk about reactive and proactive – they just abuse speak,” said Adesina.

He, however, maintained that President Buhari took immediate steps needed to address the issues, which included securing the affected places and visiting the communities.

The presidential aide made the comments hours after he announced in a statement that President Buhari would be visiting Taraba, Benue, Yobe, Zamfara, and Rivers states.

He had explained that the visits became necessary in view of recent terrorist attacks, criminal activities and communal clashes in the states, situations that led to tragic loss of lives and the abduction of 110 schoolgirls from Dapchi community in Yobe.