What does Boko Haram want?

Leadership

2 October 2011

What does Boko Haram want?

All said and done, it has now become imperative for President Goodluck Jonathan to decide either to be a ‘Lion’ and decisively bite the Boko Haram group to nip it in the bud or continue with his gentlemanly approach to national security.

This is because the group has turned down all entreaties toward achieving a peaceful resolution of the protracted crisis, insisting that it would continue to fight on until it achieves its objectives. In its immediate reaction to the submission of the report of the committee set up by the Federal Government to work out the modalities for the option of dialogue, the Deputy spokesperson of the recalcitrant sect, Abu Kaka, said the committee was on its own over its proposal for amnesty.

While submitting its report at the State House to the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, the head of the panel, Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, had urged the Federal Government to consider the option of dialogue and negotiation which should be contingent upon renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms to be followed by rehabilitation.

In this regard, the committee told Sambo that the Boko Haram had nominated the sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar 111, the Emir of Bauchi and Sheikh Abubakar Gero Argugungu as its representatives in any of the Federal Government team that will negotiate with its members. He said, “therefore, government may consider constituting another committee with wider powers and with increased membership to handle the assignment within a reasonable timeframe but not weeks as was given to this committee.”

According to Galtimari, this decision was reached after due consultations with the relevant stakeholders in the North, including the state governors of Borno, Bauchi, Kano, Niger, and Sokoto, among others.

But the Boko Haram group maintaining a no retreat, no surrender disposition, said it would continue to fight regardless of amnesty option...