It is public knowledge that the Federal Government has been having failed peace talks with the Boko Haram violent Islamist sect. Most of the talks also failed because of Boko Haram’s insistence that its conditions must be the basis for peace to rain in the northern part of the country, especially. But a couple of days ago, reports had it that the FG finally signed a ceasefire agreement with the sect. The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, reportedly announced the ceasefire deal and ordered all field officers to comply with the agreement. Part of the peace deal involved granting freedom to the almost 300 girls the sect abducted from Chibok in Borno State last April 14/15. In the euphoria of the ceasefire deal, Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and Coordinator, National Information Centre (NIC), Mr. Mike Omeri, claimed the schoolgirls held hostage were hale and hearty; while the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, hailed the success of the purported ceasefire deal to President Goodluck Jonathan’s shuttle diplomacy to the republics of Niger and Chad.
But a respected human rights activist in the country, Shehu Sani; and a journalist said to have been involved in past negotiations with the Boko Haram, Ahmad Salkida, denied knowledge of any ceasefire deal between the Nigerian government and the fundamentalist Islamist sect. “All my attempts to confirm the ceasefire deal did not produce any result… Any statement that is not coming from the leader of the group cannot be said to be credible and will not be complied with by the group’s members… the leader is the only person they respect and listen to”, Sani said. He was most probably referring to the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, whom the security agencies claimed was killed during the recent ‘battle of Konduga’ in Borno State. Reports also said Salkida, in his twitter handle of late, expressed doubts over the ceasefire deal.
As if to give credence to Sani and Salkida’s doubts about the deal, Boko Haram successfully attacked more than five Borno villages, killed 18 people and seized more territories shortly after the agreement was made public. Latest reports have it, in addition, that the group has abducted 30 boys and girls from Borno State, raided a market and killed five people in the process. Meanwhile, the release of the Chibok girls advertised as one of the major planks of the ceasefire agreement is in abeyance, as the girls taken hostage are still grappling with their fate under the insurgents’ captivity. Indeed, reports say the sect is insisting, despite the touted ceasefire agreement, that the girls will only be released in exchange of its members being held by the Nigerian government.
Critics have pointed out that legitimising a ceasefire agreement with a globally acclaimed terrorist organisation, like Boko Haram, is an aberration, since the group has no legal status in the comity of nations. The parties (between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram) that signed the agreement and the conditions involved are also not known. Our thinking, however, is that for a faceless group that has wilfully eliminated over 13,000 innocent Nigerians, mostly in the North-East, other parts of the North and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Abuja), the country’s leader, President Jonathan, ought to be the personality announcing the ceasefire agreement, with all the details of how the government started the journey, those involved in brokering it, the conditions, what costs are tenable when such conditions are disrespected, etc. But so far, unfortunately, only government spokespersons from the executive arm of government and the security agencies are the only ones parroting the nebulous ceasefire agreement, as if the FG itself has something grave to hide about its efforts to bring the insurgency up North to an end.
While Nigerians are interested in any measure the FG chooses, that will bring the insurgency to a quick end, an agreement such as the one in question, that has not reined in hostilities or attacks on innocent targets in Borno State and other locations, is objectionable. Those who brokered it should quickly revisit it. For, it does appear that they reached the truce with the wrong group. With the politics of 2015 almost approaching the cruising level, Nigerians will be quick at dismissing the ceasefire agreement claim as a hollow political statement meant to pacify agitated nerves. What is required now is a sincere and visible arrangement that will truly end the insurgency ravaging parts of the North.
