Former President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that Boko Haram insurgents once nominated former President Muhammadu Buhari to represent them in peace talks with the Federal Government.
Jonathan made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja at the public presentation of Scars, a book authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.).
The former President said his administration had established several committees to explore dialogue with the sect.
He added that in one of these instances, the insurgents “named Buhari as their preferred negotiator.”
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Jonathan said he initially felt that based on the sect’s trust in Buhari, “it would have been easy” for Buhari to negotiate the surrender of the terrorists once he became President.
The insurgency, however, persisted, leading Jonathan to conclude that the crisis was “far more complex than it is often presented.”
The ex-President said: “One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government.”
He continued: “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 was still there till today.”
Jonathan, who battled the insurgency for five years until he left office, said he thought General Buhari would wipe them out “within a reasonable time,” adding, “But even today, Boko Haram is still there.”
He further noted that the issue was “not a matter of a single story” and was beyond hunger, stating that his administration’s many strategies “did not work.” He urged the current administration to adopt a “slightly different approach” to resolve the crisis.
Jonathan described the 2014 abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls as a “permanent scar I will die with” on his administration.
He also stressed that the issue was not merely about poverty, noting that the group’s level of weaponry suggested external assistance. Jonathan said the group’s “sophisticated weapons” meant “these are not hungry people” and that “external hands are also involved.”
Jonathan concluded by expressing hope that some Boko Haram leaders would eventually document their actions and motives, similar to how key actors of the Nigerian Civil War wrote their own accounts, to provide clarity.
Buhari had publicly rejected the mediation offer in 2012 (at the height of the group’s violence), accusing the Jonathan administration of trying to drag his name into the crisis for political reasons.
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