Dodgy Peace Offer

There are doubts over the genuineness of ceasefire declared by a Boko Haram chieftain in Borno State

In the past few months, Nigerian security forces have attained some level of success in curtailing the murderous activities of Islamic insurgent group, Jamaatul Ahlus Sunnah Lid Dawatil wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram; especially the previously regular detonation of bombs in areas where the sect is active in the northern part of the country. But the sect has nevertheless continued its deadly campaign using gunmen on motorbikes for hit-and-run killing of Christians and even Muslims it perceives as working against its interests, or for other nebulous reasons. On 19 January, the sect again succeeded in putting Nigeria in the headlines across the world with its attempted assassination of the revered Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero. Though the emir survived the attack, many of his aides were not lucky, just as scores of others who have been sent to untimely to their graves without much national attention since then. Human Rights groups estimated that the sect has killed over 3,000 people since 2010. With this record, it is understandable that the sect’s offer of ceasefire, made on Monday 28 January, immediately grabbed global attention. There had been newspaper reports few days before then that Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, where the sect has been very active, had been holding talks with members of the insurgent group, trying to convince them of the need to end their deadly activities. Isa Umar Gusau, Special Adviser to Shettima on Media and Communication, told journalists that the ceasefire announced by the sect last Monday was the outcome of the governor’s initiative.

The fact that the tele-conference, through which the ceasefire was announced to journalists, was held at the premises of Borno State Radio and Television, BRTV, is an indication of government’s deep involvement in the deal. “This ceasefire being announced today, is a goodwill message from the Jamaatul Ahlus Sunnah Lid Dawatil wal Jihad (Boko Haram), following a series of meetings with government officials and leaders of thought in Borno State,” Sheikh Muhammed Abdulazeez, who described himself as spokesman of Boko Haram and second-in-command in the group, told journalists.

Abdulazeez ordered members of Boko Haram to relate the ceasefire message to other members who are not aware of the development, even as he explained that the ceasefire is nationwide and commenced immediately. “I am announcing this ceasefire with the consent and approval of the leader of Boko Haram sect, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau. We, therefore, call on all our members to stop all acts of violence immediately and await further directives. We have adopted this measure as a result of the hardship women and children are subjected to,” said the self-proclaimed Boko Haram spokesman, who also denied the group’s involvement in the recent attacks and killings in Borno and other parts of the North, attributing the violence to armed robbers and other criminals that operate under the guise of Boko Haram. Attributing the burning of old and newly constructed primary schools  across the state to aggrieved politicians who were denied contracts from the state government, Abdulazeez urged the Joint Task Force, JTF, and other security agencies to respond positively to the ceasefire .

The sect however listed conditions for the ceasefire. They include freedom for arrested members of the group and rebuilding of the destroyed mosque of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Beyond Borno State government house, however, the declaration of ceasefire was met with cynicism and at best, cautious optimism across the country.

On their part, the leaders of the Nigerian security forces said they will only believe the insurgent group is serious about its ceasefire offer if there were no attacks that bear the sect’s signature in the next 30 days. “Let’s assume we can have a long period of about one month where no bomb explodes, where nobody is shot, where nobody is beheaded, where no church is bombed, where no mosque is threatened. If they can guarantee just one month, then we can begin to talk. You see, we must take this with a lot of caution,” Vice-Admiral Ola Ibrahim, Chief of Defence Staff, who nevertheless expressed hope that the ceasefire would lead to a cessation of hostilities from the sect, told journalists.

Lt-Col. Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force which has led the efforts to combat the sect, described the declaration as a welcome development. Speaking in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, he said: “Conflicts are resolved through dialogue,” adding that the military would continue to carry out its operations. Dr. Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan, said if the ceasefire indeed holds as promised, government will consider the option of dialogue with the sect.

But while commending the ceasefire move, Comrade Shehu Sani, leader of Northern Civil Society Coalition and President of Civil Rights Congress, raised doubts on the authority of the self-proclaimed spokesperson to give such undertaking on behalf of the group.

Sani has been involved in efforts to end the insurgent activities of the group for about two years. In 2011, he initiated a meeting between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and family of Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect who was killed in police custody after he was arrested during an uprising by the group in 2009. That effort however failed, when three days after the meeting, Babakura Fuggu, the uncle of the late Boko Haram leader, who met with Obasanjo, was killed. Sani has nevertheless remained an advocate of dialogue as a means of ending the activities of the Islamic sect. Sani has insisted that there are reputable contacts of the insurgent group, contrary to assertions by government officials. The human rights activist said in a media interview last week, that the offer of ceasefire by Boko Haram will only hold if the source is credible: “The reported unilateral ceasefire by a faction of the Islamist insurgents in northern Nigeria is a welcome development if it is for real and it can only be real if the ceasefire comes through the true leadership of the group engaged in the armed violence.” He added that the ceasefire was announced by a so-called faction of the Boko Haram group: “To me, that faction does not have the potency and the capacity to bring an end to the violence.”

In line with the skepticism expressed by many, this magazine can also reveal that the same Abdulazeez who announced last week’s ceasefire had in November 2012 told journalists of the readiness of the sect to enter into dialogue with the Federal Government, preparatory to ending its deadly activities. Speaking with journalists in a tele-conference in Maiduguri, Abdulazeez had suggested General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), Dr. Shettima Ali Monguno, former Yobe State governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim; Ambassador Gaji Galtimari and Hajia Aisha Wakil and her husband, Alkali Wakil, as possible mediators between it and the federal government. The group said the dialogue must not take place in Nigeria, but Saudi Arabia. Abdulazeez added that for the group to completely put an end to its insurgency, the government must not only arrest, but prosecute former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, compensate members of the group and rebuild their places of worship destroyed during the uprising which led to the alleged murder of their leader, Yusuf. He accused Sheriff of orchestrating, in 2009, the mass killing and arrest of the sect’s members by policemen and soldiers. He has also demanded the immediate release of all members of Boko Haram in the custody of security agencies, while their wives and children who were displaced following the crises should be rehabilitated as additional conditions for the dialogue.

While the government welcomed the dialogue offer warmly, Buhari dismissed it as a charade. Indeed, Buhari’s aides later described his nomination as a mediator as an orchestrated design to rope the retired General in as one of the pillars behind the murderous activities of the sect by the federal government. Sherrff also raised dust over the call for his arrest by the group, denying any involvement in the misfortune that has befallen the group and its members. Nigerians who doubt the peace offer by the group had also insinuated that those behind it may be out to cream out funds from government’s purse through the dodgy dialogue offer. However, the biggest doubt on the sect’s peace offer was the continued loss of life and property to attacks attributed to members of the group, even while government never really indicated its readiness to consider the offer.

Last August, there were also announcements that the federal government and the members of the Boko Haram  were holding ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia, a claim by one Habu Mohammed who also described himself as the deputy leader of the sect. But the group, through Youtube posting by the leader, Abubakar Shekau, not only denied that any such talk was going on, it also described the purported press statement by Muhammad as fiction, threatening to attack media houses engaged in spreading the story. In a latter statement, the sect said it was aware that some people were taking huge funds from government in the guise of arranging dialogue with it, asking them to “fear Allah before they get into the hands of Allah’s army”. The group also noted that since the federal government arrested Abu Darda, one of its leaders it sent to dialogue on its behalf, and frustrated another dialogue initiative, headed by Dr. Ibrahim Datti and facilitated by one Ahmad Salkida, a journalist, it was no longer interested in holding talks with the authorities.

In any case, Shekau has insisted through different videos posted on Youtube that the only conditions the sect would accept to stop its deadly campaign are if Nigeria embraces the Holy Quran as its constitution, and President Jonathan converted to Islam. Before then, in February 2012, a purported spokesperson of the group had also nominated Buhari, Monguno, Bukar Ibrahim, Aisha Wakil and Jinadu Idris as members of a team to mediate between it and the Federal Government, but the negotiation never took off.

The slitting of eight persons’ throats in Maiduguri on the day the ceasefire deal was announced, and the attack on the patrol vehicle of a private security firm near the main gate of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, which resulted in the death of one Athanasus Sabo barely 24 hours after, further cast doubt on Abdulazeez’s authority to make the offer on behalf of Boko Haram. Sources told this magazine last week that the only member of the sect who can end the violence being perpetrated by the group is Shekau, the spiritual leader. It was also gathered that factionalisation of the group and the consequent dispersal of various cells recruiting members and engaging in terrorist activities independently across the northern part of country has made it difficult to have a central command that can order a ceasefire.

About three weeks ago, a faction of Boko Haram which tags itself Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis, JAMB, attacked a convoy of soldiers travelling through Kogi State on its way to Mali to join in the France-led effort to drive out Islamic militants who have taken over a large portion of that country. JAMB had claimed responsibility for the attack on a police station in Abuja late last year. The militant sect, which claimed to be an affiliate of regional terrorist group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, said it carried out the attacks which resulted in the death of three soldiers because of their involvement in the war against the Mali insurgents. The threat by the group to attack citizens and interests of other countries involved in the war against the terrorists in Mali located in Nigeria, has already led to panic among French companies located in Nigeria.

With such division and factionalisation of the sect, analysts said it would amount to building castles in the air for Nigerians to believe the declaration of ceasefire by Abdulazeez in Madiguri would put an end to killings and wanton destruction of property by Islamic insurgents operating in the country.

—Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja