The recent offer of swap made by the Boko Haram insurgents to the federal government forms the thrust of this piece by ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF, focusing on the desirability or otherwise of dialogue with the group
Boko Haram’s past
For about six years running now, the Boko Haram, a supposed Islamic sect in the north eastern part of the country, has visited woes on many homes with the effect of their dastardly acts cutting across ethnic, religious, social, age and political barriers. Hardly does a day pass by without Nigerians witnessing colossal and horrific loss of lives and properties mostly in that part of the country. However, things got a head last year, when President Goodluck Jonathan had to declare a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Until the recent abduction of some over 200 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, the gruesome killing of some students of Federal Government College, Bunu Gyadi, Yobe state, had remained the height of the group’s callousness.
The abduction
Like a movie, the girls were carted away on April 14 amidst controversial circumstances, thus making various narratives on their abduction a mystery to the world. And for two weeks after their abduction, no clear lead or comment came from the federal government on their whereabouts until a global outcry characterised by various protests locally and internationally, which challenged and compelled President Goodluck Jonathan to rise to the occasion.
Condition for release
And about a month after, the insurgents under their leader, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, in a video released by the group canvassed an exchange of the girls for their members currently standing trial before the court and those in prison custody. In the video which showed the girls in full Muslim hijab reciting verses of the Holy Quran, Shekau spoke in both Arabic and Hausa languages. .
He said, “All I’m saying is, if you want us to release your girls that we kidnapped, you must release our brethren that are held in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu and Lagos states, as well as Abuja. We know that you have incarcerated our brethren all over this country (Nigeria).
“There are some of my brethren who have spent five complete years without seeing their wives, without seeing their children. For God’s sake, even for ensuring their release, will I not kidnap? After all Allah says I should kidnap.”
“You that seized and detained my brethren for five years, you arrested and kept a woman without getting married for four, five years, you seized and hold our children.
“You did all these to us and today because we did what Allah already told us to do and you are busy making noise ‘Shekau has kidnapped this and that, he said he would sell’. Yes I will sell.
“I will sell. Those of them that have not accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers. They are staying with us. We will never release them until our brethren are released,” he added,
The contradictions
Good enough, the parents of some of the girls identified their children, thus giving a semblance of hope that the girls, were at least alive. But beyond this, the development has generated some conflict within the government circle. For Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN, the Minister of Studies who chairs the Presidential Advisory Committee on Boko Haram , a peace deal won’t be a bad idea while both President Jonathan and Senate President David Mark reject the option.
Turaki okays dialogue
Speaking weeks after the group stated its condition , Turaki says: “Nigeria has always been willing to dialogue with the insurgent. We are willing to carry that dialogue on any issue, including the girls kidnapped in Chibok, because certainly we are not going to say that (the abduction) is not an issue.”
Jonathan, Mark counter
But Turaki’s boss (Jonathan) feels differently, as according to him, negotiating with the sect at this stage is out of it. The president’s position was made known by British African Minister, Mark Simmonds who spoke to journalists shortly after a meeting with President Jonathan in Abuja.
Simmonds hints:“He(Jonathan) made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners.
“What he also made very clear to me was that he wanted his government to continue a dialogue to make sure a solution could be found and that security and stability could return to northern Nigeria for the medium and the long term.”
Making further clarifications on the FG’s position, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, rules out negotiation with the dreaded sect, adding however that government encourages traditional and community leaders to use channels available to them to restore peace.
According to him, “the position of government is clear and the president has made it clear on many occasions that this administration is willing to attend to the grievances of the group if they come out and put their demands on the table. There are different types of adversaries. This one is anonymous, faceless and ghost-like. Government cannot discuss with ghosts.
“The second point made by the President is that it is a collective responsibility to tackle the resurgence and that is why his charge to traditional and community leaders have been that they should assist the government in tackling the violence. The third point is that the FG set up a committee on the violence in the North East. The report has been submitted and has been deliberated at the Federal Executive Council meeting and a White Paper will soon be issued.
“The clear answer is that government is not negotiating with the group but has encouraged community and traditional leaders to use their channels to assist government in tackling the situation.”
Jonathan’s position is corroborated by the Senate President David Mark, who in far away China declared that what the group needed at this stage is full scale war.
Mark insists: “I have been an advocate of dialogue with the Boko Haram elements in this country. But things have gone absolutely beyond bound and no government will negotiate with Boko Haram as long as they keep our girls and our boys”.
“They must free those they have abducted unconditionally. Nobody is going to negotiate with them on that basis.”
“The current situation in the country where some children have taken arms against their own country is totally unacceptable. Parents must share in the blame.
“They have touched the hearts and souls of Nigerians by abducting and kidnapping our children. Children are our future. They have in effect declared war on Nigeria and Nigerians . We are not going to sit down and fold our hands. The Federal Government must intensify military action against the perpetrators and bring the issue of Boko Haram to a logical conclusion,” Mark further stresses.
The nation’s chief lawmaker also says: “They must have taken government decision to negotiate with them for weakness. Nigerian Armed Forces have performed creditably well across the globe. They will do even better at home to preserve our unity and sovereignty.
“They must never test the will of the government. They must never test the will of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Above all, they must never test the will of the Nigerian people because we must stand united against evil.”
Kashim, Gambari, others caution
But some groups, including the Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima think otherwise on the proposal by the insurgents. According to him, “the issue of not negotiation, or not negotiating with the terrorists – it’s out of the question. If it means talking to the devil, it means the devil can come down, we can get back our girls.”
The governor who describes the abductors as “a bunch of raving lunatics,” also recalled how he was misunderstood by some individuals when he said the Nigerian soldiers were not well motivated and equipped like the insurgents.
Sharing his view on the matter, a Professor of Political Science, University of Ilorin, Hassan Salihu, says: “I don’t think we can successfully return Chibok girls without some form of negotiation. Even America mooted the idea of dialoguing with Taliban even though the Afghanistan didn’t like it.
“It will be better to dialogue in order not to risk the lives of these girls. In doing this, government should have direct dialogue with them, no foreign help should be sought in this regard.”
And in a similar position, former under-secretary -general at the United Nations(UN), Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, also believes negotiation with the group is desirable. According to him, “you need the whole idea of stick and carrot, like a carefully calibrated. A military solution can’t work, it doesn’t work anywhere. A purely military solution, It can’t work.
“At the same time, a policy of just carrot and reward will not work. So, you need a kind of combination of stick and carrot and even more importantly, you have to identify who are these spoilers.”
But Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, a teacher in the Department of Political Science, University of Abuja, however feels different, stressing that “we have passed that level.”
Getting the girls through whatever means is what matters to the Nigerian parents, especially mothers, who believe those children are too precious to be lost.
Girls’ survival first
To Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, a member of the National Conference, negotiating with Boko Haram or not “is a dicey question. But all I know is that the girls should be released. I really don’t know how they do it, but all we care for is that the girls should be released. You know, it is difficult to release prisoners, because my take is that anybody who has committed an offence should be made to pay for it.”
Also in a comment, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, President, Women Arise for Change Initiative, noted that “all over the world, no nation dialogues or negotiates with terrorists, so Nigeria cannot be an exception. But in this case that our girls are involved and that they are being held in the forest, the Federal Government can listen to the abductors on the possibilities for their immediate release.”
APC advises FG
Carpeting the federal government for what it calls the “discordant tunes” emanating from its top echelons in the management of the Chibok crisis, the All Progressives Congress(APC), urges the central government to speak with one voice.
Interim national publicity secretary of the party,, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, notes that “information management is key if the government itself is not to jeopardize ongoing international efforts to find and rescue the girls, and the government must move fast to keep the nation informed through an established channel, in line with global best practices under such circumstances.
“While Interior Minister Abba Moro and Senate President David Mark have said the government would not negotiate the release of the girls, Information Minister Labaran Maku, Director-General of National Orientation Agency, Mike Omeri and Special Duties Minister Taminu Turaki have hinted that the Federal Government will do whatever it takes to free the girls, meaning that all options are on the table.
“To compound matters, President Goodluck Jonathan was widely quoted in the local newspapers Thursday as saying the government would not release the incarcerated Boko Haram members in exchange for the girls.”
And Buhari too
Also speaking, an APC national leader,, General Muhammadu Buhari, calls for effective synergy among the three tiers of government. According to him, “Security agencies of the (federal) government need closer cooperation with civilian security infrastructure which is in place but seldom considered as a part of the security effort,” he said against the backdrop of the effort to rescue the over 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram in Borno State.”
He stresses that ”the local government structure from ward to district to state level is an excellent starting point for an over-all new security initiative. State-wide effort should be carefully coordinated with federal authorities. It should be a bottom-to-top operation. The bickering between Abuja and the states should cease if we are serious in wanting to win the war and end the conflict. All moneys voted must demonstrably be seen to be spent on security.”
He asks all Nigerians to “come together with unequivocal support to the government and security agencies in this fight against mindless violence and mad-cap ideologies,”, stressing that the country should have “one narrative” about Boko Haram, which he slammed as an abhorrent, anti-Islamic, anti-religion and anti-human sect.
Many voices of reasoning are up on the vexed issue of whether or not government should negotiate with Boko Haram. Observers are of the view that getting these girls out safe and secure might be difficult via a military option. With the view of Gambari, an international conflict resolution expert tallying with that of Turaki and others, analysts contend that a truce with the deadly group won’t be a bad idea, irrespective of whatever crime they may have committed. It will therefore make sense to wisely weigh these alternatives and act decisively before it is too late.
