Former President Goodluck Jonathan revealed on Friday that the Boko Haram terrorist group once nominated former President Muhammadu Buhari to represent them in peace talks with the Federal Government. Jonathan made the disclosure at the public presentation of Scars, a book authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), in Abuja.
Jonathan argued that this nomination made him believe that the insurgency could have been swiftly resolved once Buhari became president, highlighting the complex and persistent nature of the crisis.
Buhari’s Nomination by Insurgents
Jonathan recounted setting up various committees to explore dialogue with Boko Haram during his administration. He noted that in one of these attempts, the insurgents made a highly unusual request.
“One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiatewith the government,” Jonathan said.
He expressed his surprise that the insurgency did not end once Buhari—the terrorists’ preferred negotiator—took office.
“I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari to represent them… then when Buhari took over, it could have been an easy way to negotiate with them and they would have handed over their guns. But it was still there till today,” he stated.
Crisis Goes Beyond Hunger
Jonathan, who spent five years battling the insurgency from 2010 to 2015, stressed that the group’s persistence under Buhari’s military background showed the crisis was “far more complex than it is often presented.”
He dismissed the idea that the insurgency is solely driven by poverty or hunger, pointing to the sophistication of the group’s arsenal.
“If you look at the weapons they use… then you know that these are not hungry people… the ammunition they use, sometimes they even have more ammunition than our soldiers,” he asserted.
Jonathan suggested that the sophisticated nature of their weapons pointed to “external hands” being involved, particularly during his presidency.
The Permanent Scar of Chibok
The former president also described the 2014 abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls as a “permanent scar I will die with” on his administration.
He called on the current government to adopt a “slightly different approach,” suggesting a carrot-and-stick strategy. Jonathan urged all military officers involved in the Boko Haram saga to document their experiences to provide clarity on the group’s true motives and goals.
Boko Haram emerged in the early 2000s in Borno State but became a major security threat following the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, in police custody in 2009.
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