Hopes that the militant Boko Haram sect would accept President Goodluck Jonathan’s olive branch, calling on the pillars of the group to come forward to state their grievances and demand reparation appear to have been dashed, as self-confessed confidant of the sect, Shehu Sani has revealed that the group will not accept the president’s verbal invitation for dialogue.
President Goodluck Jonathan, Thursday, made a declaration that his government was prepared to dialogue with the sect.
He, however, hinted that the only condition under which the sect would agree to any dialogue with government is if a foreign Islamic nation like Qatar, Saudi Arabia or Turkey agrees to chair mediations between the two.
Sani, a well known proponent of dialogue between the Boko Haram sect and the federal government, made the foreclosure yesterday during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Abuja.
Shehu Sani, who is the president of Civil Rights Congress, told the BBC that this was so because the leadership and members of the sect had distrust for the federal government, led by President Goodluck Jonathan, and as such would not accept his verbal invitation for dialogue.
He described the president’s offer as an afterthought, insisting that Jonathan erred in waiting for so long before making the call for dialogue. According to him, the move was only precipitated by the fact that hundreds of lives had been lost in the wake of attacks by the sect.
“Why did the president have to wait for so long for the violence to consume so many people before coming forward to call for dialogue? This would have been done long ago. A committee was set up to look into this issue, but even as I speak, the recommendations of that committee have not been implemented. This government thinks that it can end the violence through the use of force, and that is where they get it wrong,” he stressed.
On the hope of a ceasefire as a result of the president’s open call for dialogue, he noted that government risked being disappointed. “If President Goodluck Jonathan or his government thinks that by the mere offer for dialogue, the sponsors or members of Boko Haram will take a bus and head straight for Abuja for talks with the federal government, then, government is in for a long wait,” he said.
According to Sani, the Boko Haram had earlier disclosed its short term agenda through a broadcast, where it demanded an immediate and unconditional release of all its members held in detention by the police, failure of which the group threatened to launch waves of attacks.
“The group had a short term agenda, which was that they wanted all their members in detention to be set free.? Leaders of the Boko Haram issued a threat to the effect that if their members that were being detained were not freed within the time frame, they would launch a series of attacks.
“Before 2009,? Boko Haram was not violent and had not taken up arms. It was the unprovoked killing of its leader and members by the police, and of course the continuous detention of its members in several police stations across the northern states that irked the group,” he noted.