A former president, Goodluck Jonathan, said he thought the dreaded “Boko Haram” terrorists would end after his successor, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, took over the reins of power from him.
Jonathan, who spoke on Friday, said the group that once defined much of his presidency nominated the late Buhari to lead negotiations with his administration.
“One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government,” he said at the public presentation of a book, Scars, authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, in Abuja.
Jonathan said, “I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari to represent them and have a discussion with the government committee, 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.”
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According to him, he had believed that the regime of the late Buhari would have eventually brought an end to the activities of the insurgency in the country.
He also explained that his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led administration made several efforts and devised means to curtail the insurgency ravaging the country.
The former president further noted that the inability of Mr Buhari to eradicate Boko Haram terrorists showed that the crisis was more complex than often portrayed.
“If you conduct research and interview many people, you will only get part of the story, but never the full story of Boko Haram. I was there. Boko Haram started in 2009 when I was vice president. I took over in 2010 and spent five years battling the insurgency until I left office.
“I thought that after I left, within a reasonable time, General Buhari would wipe them out. But even today, Boko Haram is still there. The issue of Boko Haram is far more complex than it is often presented,” he said.
Mr Jonathan stressed that the activities of the dread group are ‘complex and not a matter of a single story’, urging the need to approach the fight against Boko Haram with intelligence.
“But I believe, as a nation, we have to look at the Boko Haram issue differently from the conventional approach.
“I believe one day we’ll overcome it. Once again, let me thank General Irabor for this, because I always appreciate people who document events clearly.
“That way, when we write our own accounts, we can borrow from such documentation. I also believe that all the military officers involved in the Boko Haram saga should provide information about what the group truly stood for,” he said.
Noting that the issue of the Boko Haram insurgency was beyond hunger, Mr Jonathan called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to devise a new strategy in ending the activities of the group.
“If it was only about hunger because we tried different options. I don’t want to sound like I’m defending my government.”
He added, “That will be left for history when we document our books. But I believe we did our best: we set up different committees and tried various approaches during the five years I was in office. I believe the late Buhari, too, must have tried his best.
“I believe the government, luckily, with the Defence Minister here and the service chiefs represented, must adopt a slightly different approach. God willing, we will be able to resolve this crisis.”
