Barrister Aisha Kalil Wakkil is a lawyer and
human rights activist with the National Human
Rights Commission. The senior legal officer has,
for over five years, been into peacemaking
between the Jama’atu Ahlil Sunnah (Boko
Haram) and the federal government. In this
exclusive interview with the Daily Trust on
Sunday, Barr Wakkil, who claims to be a very
close confidant of Boko Haram foot soldiers,
spoke on several issues.
How did your mediation initiative between the
federal government and Boko Haram
Nobody asked me to do it. Such a quality is in my
nature because I love peace so much. Where I
come from in the Southeast, we live in a very
peaceful atmosphere, especially in my family. We
mediate a lot where there is any problem. Now
that I am a Muslim and Islam is a very peaceful
religion, with all its teachings, this Boko Haram
development doesn’t really make sense to me.
Why should such a wonderful religion experience
this kind of a thing? But I also know that
anywhere there is smoke, there must be fire.
Something must have happened for these children
to start behaving like this.
Do you really know them well?
Yes, they were children I knew a long time ago.
The first time I visited Maiduguri around 1989
was when some of them were circumcised. I
witnessed the circumcision. That is to tell you
how young some of them were - and still are. I
witnessed the growth of most of them. They were
very wonderful children. As time went on, most of
them began living in my house because my house
is always open to all the children in that area.
That was how I got to know most of them. Then
they were not Boko Haram and Jama’atu ah-lil
Sunnah members.
So at what stage did they become extremists?
It is surprising how these children turned out to
be what they are now. I keep on saying there is
certainly no smoke without fire. Something must
have triggered those innocent-looking children to
grow up behaving the way they are behaving now.
You needed to see them growing up. These were
children that would come to my house, play
around and help in watering my ugwu plant. We
would cook together and they would help clean
my kitchen, my room and the entire house.
Sometimes when I start talking about them, I
shed tears. Those children prayed, and still pray a
lot. I have a mosque in the house and they would
always go in and pray. Anytime I went to Shehuri
north, whatever was in my handbag would not
follow me back because they would finish it there.
They all called me Mama.
At what stage did you start noticing changes in
their character?
It all started with a rumour. I began observing
they would go out in the morning and return in
the evening. During the fasting period, they would
not return until around 11 or 12 midnight. I also
remember they would go to Muhammad Yusuf’s
lectures to listen to his preaching. Sometimes,
they would come back to tell me, “Mama, see
what we read today”, and I would say, “thank
God, this Muhammad Yusuf is really trying o.” I
didn’t observe anything strange about the
teaching.
Soon, the children began to be conscious of
themselves. They always wanted to do one thing
or the other to remain busy. It was then that the
rumour started that they were planning a war.
When I heard of it, I went straight to Muhammad
Yusuf because I had been very close to him. His
father-in-law, Alhaji Baba Fugu was my Islamic
spiritual father and the entire family knew me very
well. When I realized that Muhammad Yusuf was
frequently being arrested, detained and released, I
went to Baba Fugu and asked him why his son-
in-law was always being detained? But I learnt he
was always preaching things government didn’t
like and insulting them.
One day when he (Muhammad Yusuf) returned, I
went to his house to see him. I tried to enter the
house but was not allowed in because I had a
policeman in the front seat of my car. It was
Shekau who saw the policeman and refused to
allow me to go in to see Yusuf. I was angry and
asked Shekau whether he didn’t recognize me
and didn’t realise how close I was to Yusuf. I
sent a message to Yusuf that I was angry and
would never come to his house again. When he
got my message, through his father-in-law, he
rushed to my husband’s office and told him that
he heard I was in his place but his boys refused
to allow me in. He explained I wasn’t allowed in
because of the policeman they saw with me.
When my husband told me, I asked Yusuf to come
over. He did and bowed down saying, “Mama,
please forgive me.” He was a very humble boy. I
advised him that whenever he was preaching he
should avoid insulting government. After about a
year or two, I started hearing the rumour again
that they were planning to fight. We used to
speak on phone most of the time.
How did you learn of the rumour?
Those boys in my house suddenly disappeared for
about a month; I did not set my eyes on them. I
was tensed up and started asking people where
they were, but nobody could tell me. Eventually
when they returned, one of them told me he had
something to tell me. He said, “Mama we went for
training.” When I enquired from him what kind of
training that was, he simply confided they would
be fighting a war. But then, I just laughed it off
because I did not take him serious. Jokingly, I
asked him what he knew about war. But looking
so serious, he replied that, “Mama, I swear, our
guns have already arrived in Maiduguri and that
included AK47s. When I asked him again what he
knew about any AK47, he just told me it was the
gun they would be using to fight the war. I then
asked him where they trained and he respectfully
replied, “Mama, I will not tell you this one.”
I, thereafter, called Muhammad Yusuf and told
him what I had heard about a war imminent. He
asked who told me but I replied I wouldn’t tell
him and he should just answer me yes or no
whether they were, indeed, planning to start a
war. One good quality about these boys is that
they don’t lie. Yusuf said, “yes, ma.” When I
asked him why, he said it was because of acts of
maltreatment over the crash helmet against his
followers. He said, “They killed our people and
nobody is doing anything”, and that government
had betrayed them and so on. I asked him what
that betrayal could be and whether we could
address and stop it. It was getting close to the
fasting period. He folded his hands, bent his neck
and kept mute. That was his nature. He then
said, “Mama, my hands are tight. I am not alone
in this thing. A decision has been taken. They
must fight this war unless you can go and meet
the governor.”
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the governor
until the war started. When I heard about the
fight in Bauchi on a Saturday, I called Yusuf
(which was the last time I spoke with him) and
told him I heard something was happening in
Bauchi. He admitted it, saying, “yes, we are the
one.” He added the war would engulf everybody
beyond Bauchi. I thought he was joking. I spoke
with his father-in-law on phone that Saturday
night. The following day, our own started (in
Borno state). I tried to reach him on phone but
his line was not going.
On Monday, someone came to tell me that he saw
Muhammad Yusuf at the West-End area. I rushed
there but could not see him. Two days later, I
saw him on television talking and the next thing I
saw him on the ground. Instantly, I knew there
was going to be a problem. That is where we are
now.
Were you still seeing those boys living in your
house after that?
One week to that incident, they disappeared
again. When things cooled down, one of them
rushed in to tell me that “Mama, we fought a war,
we killed this and we killed that.” I shouted at
him that small as he was, he could go to war?
But he replied that was how Allah wanted it and
they did the work of Allah. He said he had come
to tell me he was going back to the battlefield
and he wouldn’t know if we would be meeting
again. He told me to keep calling his line and
promised to always answer my calls so long he
remained alive.
The boys left and, in a short while, became
commanders in the Boko Haram group. The whole
thing was very funny to me. Suddenly, they
started changing fast; they no longer looked like
those kids I called my children. The other day one
of them came to see me in my house. When I told
him to sit down for a talk, he curtly responded,
“No, ma. As you are seeing me here, they have
given me an assignment and I have to go and do
it.” When I enquired the manner of the
assignment, he calmly replied it was to kill
someone. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t
stop them. That situation remains till today.
Were you at a point scared of any association
with them and thought of cutting off all ties with
them?
I have always held that even if those boys should
turn to snakes, I would remain with them because
I believe they will never harm me. Anytime any of
them comes around, what he tells me is the story
that this one has died and that one has become
this and that.
When they relocated to the bush, did you ever go
there to see them?
I have been there several times at different
locations to see them. Sometimes, I will cook for
them and take the food there. Sometimes they
will be the ones to phone me and say, “when next
you are coming buy suya and drugs for us”, and
things like that. At a time majority of them were
dying before they started recruiting more and
more people.
When you go to the bush to see them, where do
you stay?
Whenever I meet them in the bush, we sit down
and talk freely like mother and children. They will
show me different bombs and ammunitions. I will
ask them what they are doing with those things
and will joke with them it’s themselves they will
bomb with them, not me. They will burst out
laughing, saying “Mama has come again.”
Sometimes I will even stay there overnight. Their
major requirements are food and drugs. There
had been occasions I stayed three days with
them in the bush.
How do you always find your way to wherever
they are?
In most cases, they will be the ones to call to ask
me to bring them food, drugs and/or money.
When I inform them I am on my way there, they
will start directing me, saying things like, “go out
of your house, cross the road and you will see a
car like this, like that. Open the rear door and sit
on the back seat and bend your head down while
in the car till the journey lasts.”
Do you still know the whereabouts of some of
those boys living in your house then?
Some are dead, some are still in the bush, while
some are in jail.
Have you ever sold them the idea of dropping
their guns and accepting amnesty?
Yes, I have been doing that right from day one. In
the beginning, they were telling me that, “Mama,
we don’t like this thing that is happening to us.
We are sure something is wrong somewhere. If
government can call us and ask us, we shall tell
them everything. Let government dialogue with us
and tell us how to stop all these things and we
will stop.” But as time went on, they started
talking negative of government. They were saying
government was no more doing this and that.
One of them told me, “Mama, the ocean we are
swimming in is very deep. This thing has
graduated from the Jama’atul Ahlil Sunnah into
something else.” He said “the big men in Nigeria
know what I am saying,” adding, “such people
will not allow peace to emerge because they have
their interests.”
Weren’t they ever afraid you could betray them to
the authorities?
They know I will never do that. In any case,
whenever we come together to Abuja for peace
talks, we always move so closely until we return.
You need to see us at the airport as if we are
fused together. In case there is any danger, all of
us will go. Anywhere I take them, we sleep in the
same hotel and eat the same food. They will all
converge on my room to watch television. I will
tell them to look at the good things of life that
they are missing and they will confidently reply,
“Yes, but one day in Allah’s kingdom is better
than all these.”
Have they ever told you if the group is
factionalized, as it seems they are no more
doing things the same way they started?
Yes, the way some of them are doing things has
not been the same way the original group was
doing it. But the original group is still there. They
are still very much around. Even among them, the
original Jama’atu Ahlil Sunnah is calling the other
ones Boko Haram. They will say they are not
Boko Haram, the other ones are the Boko Haram.
I once asked them the difference between the two
groups. They said the other group has deviated
from the norms. They said government and
politicians are buying them and using them to kill
perceived opponents. They said there are people
doing rituals in the name of Boko Haram. But they
are all together in the bush. The whole thing is
mixed up now. But once the original group stops,
every other one must stop because none can
stand on its own again. I once asked them about
the frequent spate of bombings when it was
becoming too much. They said, “Mama, anywhere
we bombed, we issue a statement claiming
responsibility. The ones we did not do, we keep
quiet.”
Were the Chibok girls kidnapped by the original
group?
All I know is that the Boko Haram group
kidnapped the Chibok girls.
From your close interaction with these boys, do
you think they will agree to drop their arms,
release every person in their custody and return
to the larger society if government decides to
grant them amnesty?
Let me ask you this question; are they not human
beings? If they are human beings like you and I,
why won’t they accept the offer of amnesty? This
administration is willing to dialogue with them. I
am sure the president would like to ask them
what happened and I am sure the children will be
willing to say it. I was with them recently and
they were asking me if the society will be willing
to forgive them. I said why not if they will drop
their arms and become good boys. If Nigeria and
Nigerians can accommodate the OPC in the West,
MASSOB in the East and the Niger Delta militants,
why won’t they accommodate them?
In all your visits to the forest to meet those
boys, have you ever encountered any difficulty?
Of course, yes, I have encountered many
difficulties. Once when I went out in search of the
girls, there was one particular guy who nearly
kidnapped the group I went with, but I just played
along with him. Once you put a smile on their
faces, your problem is over. God helped us and
we came out of it successfully.
There was this other one that I do not like
remembering. I was in the bush with them. They
were asking me who to trust and who not to
trust. They were eating the food I took to them
and writing their names in Arabic inscription on
the ground when, suddenly, one of them stood up
and started insulting me. He was eating the
N20,000 suya I bought for them when something
came over him and he started pouring abuses on
me. He said as a lawyer who went to an English
school, I was not supposed to be where they
were. He threatened to shoot me if I talk again.
Others were just eating their suya when their
boss shouted at him to keep quiet. After some
minutes, one of them stood up and asked him,
“Do you know the person you just insulted? What
made you insult her?” He pulled his trigger and
shot him thrice and his lifeless body fell down
there. I was terrified. None of them cared about
his corpse. They simply continued eating their
suya. That was my worst moment.
There was another time I was with them in the
bush. I didn’t know that they had some of their
men on the top of the trees we were sitting
under. I just heard someone shout ‘Allahu Akbar’
from the tree top. Suddenly, they started firing in
that bush ceaselessly for about an hour. No one
was willing to tell me what was going on.
After the death of Muhammad Yusuf, did you
ever see or meet Shekau in the bush?
No, I never met him.
But you were seeing other commanders in the
bush who you knew during the lifetime of
Muhammad Yusuf…
Yes, I was meeting others and Shekau knew I was
going to the bush to meet some of the boys.
We understand Shekau is dead…
I am sorry, I won’t answer that question. I do not
want to discuss that issue.
How would you like to describe the new
leadership of the group?
Well, it has been the same thing. They keep
killing. How do you want me to describe them?
Some people say Muhammad Yusuf was milder
than Shekau because there weren’t many killings
then. Do you agree with that belief?
Of course, that is true. Muhammad Yusuf was
cool-headed. But you should also know that they
are not responsible for all the killings. Some of
the killings are politically motivated while others
may be for economic reasons. When finally there
is peace and the boys come into the open,
Nigerians will hear from them. They will tell the
world who and who were sending them to do
what.

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/news/my-encounter-with-boko-haram-foot-soldiers-barr-aisha/106520.html#ybeYJ19v1MOkcKTC.99

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