Failed Peace Efforts

Past and present efforts to reconcile Boko Haram with the Federal Government remain a mirage

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in January this year, challenged the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, to reach out to the Boko Haram sect. He told the Cable News Network: “To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them. When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick.” He added that Jonathan was “doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten”.

In September 2011, Obasanjo started the reconciliation efforts with the terrorist group when he paid a secret visit to the family of the founder of the Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf (killed in the 2009 uprising by policemen after soldiers had arrested and handed him over to cops) in Maiduguri, Borno State. What ended that effort was the fact that Boko Haram killed Babakura Fugu, representative of Yusuf’s family, who hosted Obasanjo.

In June 2011, Boko Haram, in a statement by one Usman Al-Zawahiri, who claimed to be the spokesman of the group, gave strict conditions for truce. “We demand for the strict enforcement of Sharia legal system in the Muslim-dominated states in the North as part of conditions for dialogue with the government,” the group said in the statement. It demanded for the prosecution of the immediate past governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff for the killing of its leader as well as the release of all its detained members.

“If the government meets these conditions, we will agree to a ceasefire and enter into dialogue with them,” the statement added.

On 17 March 2012, a former ally of Yusuf, Datti Ahmed, attempted to establish links. But that effort failed. Ahmed, a medical doctor and a Muslim cleric, abandoned the peace moves because of what he called government’s insincerity after officials leaked details of their meetings to the media.

Another development was that Abu Qaqa, the sect’s spokesman, denied the report published by a United States newspaper that Nigerian government officials had met a Boko Haram commander, called Abu Mohammed, in Saudi Arabia. Qaqa warned: “We’ve heard about those who go about using our names in order to collect huge sums of money from the government. We are warning you.” Qaqa added that ever since that attempt at dialogue (Datti Ahmed’s) was aborted, there has not been any “move for dialogue that we agreed till date.”

Boko Haram, on 22 August 2012, abandoned its truce meetings with representatives of government after the arrest of one of its senior commanders, Abu Dardaa, whom it had sent for talks.

There was also the 28 January peace deal, brokered after a marathon meeting between some leaders of Boko Haram and the Borno State Government, led by Governor Kashim Shettima.

That day, Sheikh Abu Mohammad Abdulazeez Ibn Idris, a commander of Boko Haram in-charge of North and Central Borno, said his group had decided to “lay down our arms.’’

But it gave a condition that government must release all Boko Haram members from custody unconditionally and “re-build our places of worship”. However, Shekau disclaimed the peace agreement.

The Northern Governors’ Forum which, on 22 August 2012, inaugurated a 41-man panel, headed by Amb. Zakari Ibrahim, submitted its report in March this year. It recommended unconditional amnesty for Boko Haram members and  immediate release of all detainees “against whom there is no established case of criminal involvement”.

The committee further recommended that President Jonathan  visit Borno, Yobe and Kano states and should meet with not only governments of these states “but also with a cross-section of the elders of the various communities”.

Thinking that these would work, Jonathan visited Borno after which he set up the Amnesty Committee on 4 April 2013 to look at the feasibility or otherwise of the programme, collate clamours arising from different interest groups who want the apex government to grant clemency to members of the religious sect and recommend modalities for the granting of the pardon, “should such step become the logical one to take under the prevailing circumstance.” The committee would work hand in hand with the National Security Adviser, NSA.

However, Imam Shekau, on 10 April 2013, issued a Youtube message saying: “Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is talking about granting us amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the contrary, it is we that should grant you pardon.”

This means that Boko Haram still draws a big line in the sand for the Jonathan government!

—Ademola Adegbamigbe