Former President Goodluck Jonathan has shocked Nigerians with a revelation that Boko Haram insurgents once chose Muhammadu Buhari as their preferred negotiator with the Federal Government.
Speaking at the launch of Scars, a book by ex–Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), in Abuja, Jonathan said his government set up committees to dialogue with the sect — and at one point, the terrorists named Buhari.
“One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government,” Jonathan said.
The ex-president said he had assumed this would give Buhari an edge when he became president.
“So I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari… 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 said Buhari’s failure to end the crisis proved Boko Haram was “far more complex” than many believed.
“I thought that after I left, within a reasonable time, General Buhari would wipe them out. But even today, Boko Haram is still there,” he added,
Calling the 2014 Chibok girls’ abduction “a scar I will die with,” Jonathan insisted Nigeria must adopt new strategies, warning that the sect’s sophisticated weapons showed external backing.
“Where are these guns, sophisticated weapons coming from? And you begin to see that the external hands are also involved,” he said.
Jonathan also urged military officers who battled Boko Haram to tell their stories, just as Civil War veterans did. “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.”
