By Jane Okafor, Abuja
Former presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has said that Boko Haram did not nominate former President, late Muhammadu Buhari, as their mediator contrary to the position of his predecessor, ex – President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan(GEJ), who allegedly linked Buhari to the terrorist sect.
Shehu said if by linking the late President, albeit falsely, to the Boko Haram group was Jonathan’s way of making a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, then the long journey had taken off on a “false start.”
“We want to say to him that Mr Jonathan, you are making a false start,” he said.
To win in 2027, Shehu therefore urged Jonathan to go look for a better story to tell Nigerians.
The Daily Crucible reports that Jonathan had on Friday while speaking at the public presentation of Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, a book authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), described the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014 by the Boko Haram group as a permanent scar on his administration.
The former president expressed hope that some leaders of the insurgent groups would one day see the need to document their actions like some key actors of the Nigerian Civil War did by writing their own accounts, to provide clarity on the insurgency’s motives.
Jonathan said he thought the Boko Haram insurgency would end during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said this is because Boko Haram insurgents once nominated Buhari to represent them in negotiations with the federal government.
He recalled that during one of such processes when he was seeking end to the deadly campaign of the insurgent group, the insurgents put forward Buhari as their preferred negotiator, prompting him to feel it would have been easy for Buhari, when he emerged as president, to negotiate with the terrorists to surrender, but the insurgency had remained instead of abating.
Jonathan said, “One of the major scars on my government—and it will remain on my face, as Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it—is the issue of the Chibok girls.
“It is a scar I will die with. But perhaps later, more details may become known, and that too has to do with Boko Haram.
“What did they really want? Our chairman once raised the issue when he interviewed some of them, and they gave him certain perspectives. But I pray that one day, some of the Boko Haram leaders may be literate enough to document what they have done, so that people will truly understand what they wanted. It is similar to the story of the Nigerian Civil War.
“One of the committees we set up then, Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with government.
“So I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari to represent them and have a discussion with the government committee, 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 is still there till today.
Jonathan said Buhari’s inability to eradicate Boko Haram terrorists showed that the crisis was more complex than often portrayed.
“If you conduct research and interview many people, you will only get part of the story, but never the full story of Boko Haram. I was there. Boko Haram started in 2009 when I was vice president. I took over in 2010 and spent five years battling the insurgency until I left office.
“I thought that after I left, within a reasonable time, General Buhari would wipe them out. But even today, Boko Haram is still there. The issue of Boko Haram is far more complex than it is often presented.
“So, it’s a bit complex, and not a matter of a single story. But I believe, as a nation, we have to look at the Boko Haram issue differently from the conventional approach. I believe one day we’ll overcome it. Once again, let me thank General Irabor for this, because I always appreciate people who document events clearly.
‘‘That way, when we write our own accounts, we can borrow from such documentation. I also believe that all the military officers involved in the Boko Haram saga should provide information about what the group truly stood for.”
… Buhari’s aide, others counter Jonathan
But countering Jonathan, Garba Shehu said Boko Haram did not nominate Buhari as their mediator or negotiator, and urged the 2027 presidential hopeful to go fetch a better tale for Nigerians.
He said that Boko Haram did not name Muhammadu Buhari as their mediator as alleged by ex -President Jonathan.
In a statement, Shehu said, “We are compelled to make a response to a terrible statement made on the late president Muhammadu Buhari by his predecessor in office, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to the effect that Boko Haram had nominated him to represent them in a dialogue with the government.
“If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that “Mr Jonathan, you are making a false start.”
Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the Boko Haram terrorist group, never nominated Muhammadu Buhari for any such role. In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition.
“In 2014, Muhammadu Buhari escaped a bomb attack on his life by Boko Haram in Kaduna, in which his personal staff suffered various degrees of injury.
“Buhari’s campaigns focused on fighting Boko Haram and restoring security to Nigeria whenever he became president, putting him in direct opposition to the terrorist group’s leader.
“Contrary to the news making the rounds in those years that the radical Islamist extremist –Boko Haram had nominated General Muhammadu Buhari as the mediator between them and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the proposed peace talks, the retired Military General denied knowledge of his nomination.”
Also, in a statement issued at the time by the then national secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr Buba Galadima, Buhari, the national leader of the CPC said he was not aware of the appointment: “As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it,” Galadima said.
Continuing, the party secretary told reporters that “he (Buhari) said the whole thing to him, is just speculation. And since nobody has contacted him as a person for him to even know who is behind what, and what the motives of the whole exercise are, he would not speak to the press.” He revealed that Buhari, the 2011 presidential candidate of the CPC, further told him that as an elder statesman and a patriotic Nigerian, he will continue to pray until peace and tranquillity return to Nigeria.
Also, according to LEADERSHIP report, what led to the misleading information at the time and perhaps up to this moment was that a faction of the terrorist group, possibly sponsored by Buhari’s opponents, staged a press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through a certain Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno, saying that the sect would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and the then Senator, now late Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, also late, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the federal government.
Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram, who claimed that he had “no mandate from their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau.”
Speaking on to the issue, the then CPC national publicity secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, now late, lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for latching on to Buhari’s alleged nomination for political reasons.
Fashakin described Buhari’s purported nomination as “the latest gambit in the desire of this organically corrupt PDP-led Federal Government in diverting the attention of the unsuspecting Nigerian public from the ongoing massive looting of their common patrimony.”
Fashakin also said: “Without any scintilla of equivocation, General Muhammadu Buhari has never been directly or remotely connected with any insurrection or insurgency against the Nigerian nation and her people. He remains the quintessential patriot that continues to magnetise the very best across the ethno-religious boundaries within the Nigerian nation-space.”
The party chieftain accused the PDP of being responsible for the growing insecurity in the country, insisting:
“As we have stated in an earlier communication, the (PDP), as a corporate entity, is the harbinger of the insecurity travails of the Nigerian people for the sole reason of ensuring perpetuity in governance.”
Fashekun listed the three categories of Boko Haram and alleged that the PDP-led government is sponsoring one of them. “From recollection of events of the last two years, there are three variants of the Boko Haram: the original Boko Haram that is at daggers drawn with the Nigerian authority for the extra-judicial killing of their leader; the criminal Boko Haram that is involved in all criminality for economic reasons and of course, the most lethal of all, the Political Boko Haram, which this PDP-led Federal Government represents.
“The President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, had once alerted the nation of the ubiquitous presence of Boko Haram in his government, a fact aptly amplified by his erstwhile National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi.” He further drew instances from the revelations made by the State Security Service. “Undoubtedly, the latest revelations by the State Security Services (SSS) on the complicity of the top echelon of the PDP leadership in Boko Haram activities aptly bear testimony of the noxious subterfuge to extirpate the essence of our nationhood.”
…Jonathan clarifies position, says he was misrepresented
However, a statement from the office of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has clarified that he never said Buhari hand any link with the Boko Haram insurgents or supported them, stressing that a section of the media misrepresented him.
He stated, “We wish to make it abundantly clear that the former President’s comments were grossly misrepresented. At no time did Dr. Jonathan suggest, imply, or insinuate that President Buhari had any connection with Boko Haram or that he supported the group in any form.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Dr. Jonathan recognizes that President Muhammadu Buhari, like every patriotic Nigerian, stood firmly against terrorism and was himself a target of Boko Haram violence. Both men, during their respective tenures, shared a common commitment to restoring peace and stability to Nigeria.
“The Office of the Former President therefore urges the public to disregard any misinterpretation of his remarks. Dr. Jonathan remains committed to peace, unity, and the strengthening of democratic values in Nigeria. He believes that the nation’s progress depends on a truthful understanding of its challenges, not on the distortion of facts for political or sensational purposes.”
