?Some politicians on Saturday in Lagos supported the Federal Government’s decision to dialogue with the Boko Haram sect.
The politicians said that the call for dialogue made by Vice President Namadi Sambo at a programme organised by the Nasirul-Lahi-Faith Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), in Abuja, was okay and timely.
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), they agreed that dialogue was the “way out of the challenges posed the sect''.?
The National Chairman, Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, told NAN that he supported the government’s decision to dialogue with the sect.
“This is the right thing for the government to do because it has no other alternative but to dialogue with the opposition,’’ he said.
?Musa said although he supported dialogue in this instance, the government should be cautious with the way it invited other aggrieved groups for talks.
?“Other groups might want to come up so as to get attention from the government.
?“I advice that government should not make it a condition that there should be a dialogue with aggrieved opposition,“ he said.
In his reaction, the Deputy National Chairman, Alliance for Democracy (AD), Alhaji Musa Umar, contended that to dialogue with the sect would mean to make their faces known.
He said that the decision to dialogue was a welcomed one, considering that government would be better off for it in the end.
“The fact that the vice-president is saying this may mean that they have established some form of contact with the sect.
“All we want is for peace to return to this country,’’ he said.
According to him, government’s dialogue with the Niger Delta Militants and the successful outcome of that exercise can be replicated with the Boko Haram sect.
He, however, noted that dialoguing with Boko Haram might be misconstrued that government would always come to the round table with other self-acclaimed marginalised` groups.
The former FCT Chairman, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Sunny Moniedafe, said he was in support of government’s discussion with the sect, saying, however, that it was somewhat belated.
?“I support the dialogue, but wished it had begun much earlier,’’ he said.
?He urged the government to have the dialogue with the sect as soon as possible so that peace, progress and economic stability would return to the country.
He added that Nigerians had become frightened “even of their shadows“ as a result of the sect’s insurgency. ( NAN )