₦airaland Forum

That the Nigerian government would broach the idea of negotiating with members of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad otherwise known as Boko Haram, is too bitter a pill for many Nigerians to swallow. And understandably so given the havoc that this terrorist group has wreaked on the country and its psyche in the past couple of years.

In 2014 alone, the group was believed to have killed more than 10,000 Nigerians in addition to maiming thousands more and destroying property worth billions of naira. So, Nigerians are justifiably angry with the sect and would want the military to battle it until the last man is sent to rot in hell.

Unfortunately, like a dying patient whose only chance for survival is hinged on the ingestion of some irritating concoction, Nigeria currently has little or no option than to negotiate with the deadly sect. In fact, prospects for negotiations seem to be the most inspirational suggestion from the six-week old government of President Muhammmadu Buhari.

I understand the sentiment of Nigerians who are angry at the suggestion but then, nations endure when they face their realities rather than wallow in emotional aspirations that their situations do not support.

How exactly does Nigeria hope to defeat these insurgents militarily? True, some months back, multinational forces put together by Cameroon, Niger, Benin and Nigeria ravaged the camps of the insurgents like a vengeful plague.

Daily, we saw videos of recaptured territories and a jubilant army celebrating their exploits. These victories, we understand, were due to the re-equipment of the Nigerian Armed Forces which invariably shored up the morale of our men and officers. To yours truly, and I imagine, to a lot of other Nigerians, the routing of the insurgents in the weeks preceding the general elections was indicative of the end of the insurgency. But we were mistaken.

In the past six weeks or so, not less than 500 lives would have been lost to attacks by Boko Haram insurgents or those who exercise their franchise. In these weeks, the North-East, which has borne the brunt of the warfare, the North-West and the North-Central have been shaken by deadly attacks with signatures identical with that of Boko Haram.

The implication of this is that the military campaign between February and March this year has only succeeded in containing the insurgency to an extent but even that extent remains costly for the country unless something more positively drastic is done. And for a number of manifest reasons, which I will enumerate, I do not think those solutions could be military.

The first is that by the nature of insurgencies, military confrontations are never the ultimate solution. This fact is corroborated by examples from all over the world. Like we have in Nigeria, most insurgencies are trigged by socio-political disaffections. And as Jonathan Powell, the British diplomat who served as chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland argues, in a paper entitled, Security is not enough: Ten lessons for conflict resolution from Northern Ireland,” if there is a political problem at the root of a conflict, there has to be a political solution to it. Powell quotes Hugh Orde, a former Chief Constable of Northern Ireland, as saying that “there are no examples anywhere in the world of terrorist problems being policed out.” There must, at some point, be some political solution as is evidenced in the Northern Ireland “Troubles” which was effectively on for about four decades before settlement was reached.

Of course, Powell and Orde do not suggest that security measures have no place in dealing with insurgencies as they argue that without “security pressure, insurgents will find life comfortable and have no incentive to make the tough decisions necessary for peace.” But the point remains that “security pressure by itself without offering a political way out will simply cause the insurgents to fight to the last man.”

I daresay that this is the situation that Nigeria currently faces. With an army of demoralised soldiers, a lot of whose motivation in the army, by the admission of the army chief is more pecuniary than militaristic, we cannot bank on terminating this insurgency on the war front.

The chance is worsened by the archaic state of our security architecture, infrastructure and intelligence gathering. How does a nation that relies on other nations, regardless of their own situation, hope to win this kind of war?

But more than this, Nigeria’s ability to win this war through the guns is hampered by its guerilla nature. The size of Sambisa Forest, one of the strongholds of these insurgents, which spreads across Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi states makes it difficult to go all the way as civilian causalities will definitely be incurred. This is worsened by our pathetically porous and policed borders which allow aliens come wreak havoc on the country at will.

The level of poverty in the country also makes the potential for Boko Haram recruitments very easy. This is coupled with the deceptive religious toga which the insurgents have given to their war. A situation in which a 10-year-old girl gets nominated by her father to undertake a suicide mission tells the extent of local collaboration which Boko Haram could get as a result of the sale of lies whose potency is encouraged by the level of illiteracy and ignorance in the northern part of Nigeria.

Most fatal to the chance of a military victory for Nigeria is the relentlessness of the insurgents. It is a venture at which perpetrators never stops reinventing and innovating. At the start, Boko Haram attacked soft targets, visiting schools and worship places; over the years, it acquired a territorial status to the extent that more than 30 local governments in the North were under its control with its flag hoisted.

But with the military incursions of the armed forces in the first few months of this year, Boko Haram has gone back to its initial strategy of attacking soft targets, mingling with people in worship places, restaurants and drinking joints and detonating explosives with massive casualties following. How does a nation, which cannot boast of high grade intelligence gathering, win such confrontations on the war front? How do we deal with situations in which bombers disguise as worshippers, only to unleash explosives on innocent worshippers?

This is why the Federal Government must go ahead and do everything within its capacity to resolve the Boko Haram challenge. If we think about it, the risk involved in allowing the reign of violence to continue is enormous for the future of the country.

For instance, Northern Nigeria currently bears the burden of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. This is inadvertently preparing another generation of terrorists. And the greatest harm that we can do to the future of Nigeria is to allow these insurgents hand over to another generation which is likely to be more vociferous in their hatred for the nation than the current generation, in the same way in which the present Boko Haram leaders are more violent and deviant than Yusuf Mohammed who founded the group. This government must work hard to dismantle the pyramid of violence that insurgent groups have mounted in the country.

Twitter:@niranadedokun

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http://www.punchng.com/opinion/why-buhari-should-negotiate-with-boko-haram/

Who is stopping anybody from Negotiating with the Terrorists? He should do what ever that will stop the callous carnage in the land and stop disturbing our peace as if he needs our permission.
Btw, the ISIS/BH guys has made it clear they need no Amnesty but their own Caliphate. So i see nothing physical or material Buhari can give them in place of their spiritual demand.

4 every 1 reasn u giv to negotiate wit dis beasts,i'd show u a thousand reasn y u shud not.. Kill em all.. Bastards!!!

B

Who is this Boko Haram sympathizer?

An echo of my opinion.

This is the only place we tend to disagree:

Unfortunately, like a dying patient whose only chance for survival is hinged on the ingestion of some irritating concoction, Nigeria currently has little or no option than to negotiate with the deadly sect.

I would rather we tarry a little, significantly deplete their capability, and coerce them to the negotiation table. It is not ideal for a government to negotiate with violent non state actors from a point of weakness. You would only embolden them to cause more trouble. This I think Baba understands.

omenka:
I would rather we tarry a little, significantly deplete their capability, and coerce them to the negotiation table. It is not ideal for a government to negotiate with violent non state actors from a point of weakness. You would only embolden them to cause more trouble. This I think Baba understands.

And you think their capability can be depleted seeing that they've pledged their allegiance to their big brother ISIS?

Only through force can these guys be dealt with in this country, which someone called "zoo", I call it "jungle" (a place where anything can happen)

One solution: divide the damn country and then the north would stand up to fight bokoharam head on....the moment the north realizes that they are harming only themselves and not in extension Nigeria as it is now then the insurgency would stop...let them live with themselves as a country and you would see chamges...how can a region be dragging a big country like nigeria back since its inception..?..

omenka:
An echo of my opinion.

This is the only place we tend to disagree:
I would rather we tarry a little, significantly deplete their capability, and coerce them to the negotiation table. It is not ideal for a government to negotiate with violent non state actors from a point of weakness. You would only embolden them to cause more trouble. This I think Baba understands.

If you deplete their capability,what is the need for a negotiation afterwards? Why not just finish the job? Do we have to reward them for the atrocities by all means?

Negotiate with terrorists in ur own country to stop an idealogy that worth a zillion times the money u wanna give to them? These radicals knew what they want. Give them a caliphate and the matter is solved or bring them down on their knees with brute force, Simple.

Quite a long article, I read it through thinking the writer would suggest ways by which the negotiation can be done by the Government. So how can BH be negotiated with, when their ideology and demands are not innocuous to human lives? What will FG offer the cold-blooded killers to persuade them to drop their arms?

The fraud is about to take a deadly turn. Buhari and APC, backed with the Biritish are about the pull the biggest scams ever......

Let us see some of the key events leading to where we are now:

1. Buhari visits UK, Niger and Chad to secretly negotiate the way forward for his foot soldiers, Boko Haram
2. Boko haram prisoners sent to Anambra, government initially denies but later admits.
3. Buhari releases 185 Boko Haram Members
4. Bomb blasts in Kano, Jos and Kaduna, etc
5. Oby visits Buhari for the fake BBOG campaign
6. UK Govt said they saw the girls but could not save them
7. In line with what the British Government says, Buhari Blames GEJ for not rescuing the chibok girls
8. Buhari planning to release more Boko Haram prisoners under the guise of exchange with the girls.
9. Buhari toys with Amnesty for Boko Haram
10. APC supports amnesty for their Islamic brothers, Boko Haram........
11. The Nigerian government claims to have captured the masterminds of the Bomb Blast- very laughable. This is a ploy to make the government appear competent
12.....There will be strong campaigns for amnesty for Boko Haram and swap of the so-called kidnapped girls....

-------------------------------------------------------------------
--Only APC fans support Amnesty for Boko Haram
--Only APC people believe in the Chibok Scam (of course they used it as a scam against GEJ)
--Only APC fans support the exchange of Boko Haram for the 'Ghost' Chibok Girls


-Where are pictures of the kidnapped girls?

Every day, various news media is awash with frightening details of how innocent Nigerians are killed/maimed/rap.ed by the rampaging fulani invaders. I read recently that the government under Buhari is ready to negotiate with boko haram and it is no longer news that the end result might be amnesty for boko haram fighters who have brutally terminated the lives of thousands of innocent Nigerians for no justifiable reasons.

What will be the final solution to the fulani question in Nigeria?

We are all disturbed about boko haram because of their bombs but the truth is that the fulani invaders have probably killed more Nigerians than boko haram. The rate at which indigenous people of the MB are being killed by the fulani, it is a question of when not how they would eventually wipe out the MB people and occupy their lands. Buhari should tell us how he plans to manage his invading brothers who are hell bent on occupying the MB at all costs. I am inclined to believe that should they successfully finish off the MB people, their eyes would be set on southern lands for occupation as well. Already there are cases of attacks at different locations in the South where people are killed and women ra.ped.

For those supporting and calling for amnesty for boko haram I ask, what about the invading fulanis? Should Nigeria grant them amnesty as well to check their madness

Are the fulanis a special class of Nigerians? We see them openly brandishing riffles even AK 47s in broad day light and one begins to wonder when herdsmen now use AK 47s in rearing cattle. If an Igbo or Yoruba man is seen with a small locally made pistol even at night he would be immediately arrested by security agents and might languish in prison for ever but the fulanis move around with AK 47s and security forces look the other way. Which way Nigeria? They have become more fearless and bold in their attacks since Buhari took over power as President of this country.

Below are some links to read about the activities of the fulani invaders, they are so many but I just selected these few to paste here:



http://www.punchng.com/news/fulani-gunmen-kill-benue-monarch-30-suswams-kinsmen/

http://www.channelstv.com/2015/03/15/fulani-herdsmen-kill-scores-in-agatu-benue-state/

http://news.yahoo.com/suspected-fulani-herdsmen-kill-least-23-central-nigeria-140547630.html

http://morningstarnews.org/2013/12/at-least-205-christians-killed-by-fulani-herdsmen-in-benue-state-nigeria/

http://tvcnews.tv/?q=article/nigeria-scores-killed-fulani-herdsmen-invade-nasarawa

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/blood-flows-again-80-killed-as-fulani-herdsmen-invade-benue-village/

cc

HungerBAD, Omenka.

PussyJuice77:
The fraud is about to take a deadly turn. Buhari and APC, backed with the Biritish are about the pull the biggest scams ever......

Let us see some of the key events leading to where we are now:

1. Buhari visits UK, Niger and Chad to secretly negotiate the way forward for his foot soldiers, Boko Haram
2. Boko haram prisoners sent to Anambra, government initially denies but later admits.
3. Buhari releases 185 Boko Haram Members
4. Bomb blasts in Kano, Jos and Kaduna, etc
5. Oby visits Buhari for the fake BBOG campaign
6. UK Govt said they saw the girls but could not save them
7. In line with what the British Government says, Buhari Blames GEJ for not rescuing the chibok girls
8. Buhari planning to release more Boko Haram prisoners under the guise of exchange with the girls.
9. Buhari toys with Amnesty for Boko Haram
10. APC supports amnesty for their Islamic brothers, Boko Haram........
11. The Nigerian government claims to have captured the masterminds of the Bomb Blast- very laughable. This is a ploy to make the government appear competent
12.....There will be strong campaigns for amnesty for Boko Haram and swap of the so-called kidnapped girls....

-------------------------------------------------------------------
--Only APC fans support Amnesty for Boko Haram
--Only APC people believe in the Chibok Scam (of course they used it as a scam against GEJ)
--Only APC fans support the exchange of Boko Haram for the 'Ghost' Chibok Girls


-Where are pictures of the kidnapped girls?

You chose to politicize the grave situation. Do you have evidences to back your various allegations in this post? Or are the allegations mere innuendos, to be taken with levity?

@ EUROBOMBER.

First of all, the idea of granting amnesty didn't start with Buhari's admin as you people wrongly believe- even Jonathan offered same to them in the past, an offer I kicked against because I didn't trust that government to handle such intricate task: www.thisdaylive.com/articles/jonathan-offers-conditional-amnesty-to-boko-haram/179805/

Now, to answer your question, let us rewind a little. When Yar'Adua offered and granted Niger Delta militants (terrorists) amnesty, they weren't the only plague Nigeria suffered from then. We had/still have armed robbers, kidnappers, and corporate crooks (I remembered Jonathan once talked about "commercial kidnapping in the south", did anyone ask if they were also gonna get a reprieve just like the militants? The answer is NO.

There is what is called scale of preference and expediency. The activities of the militants then appeared to constitute the biggest threat to our socioeconomic well being as a nation, hence the preferential attention (compared to other vices) given them.

Today, the narative is a lot different- the activities of Boko Haram poses not only a sociopolitical threat, but an existential threat to this nation. If not nipped in the bud, they just might succeed in pushing us off the cliff, which is their ultimate goal.

I believe the other groups you mentioned don't have the kind of capabilities Boko Haram has so we don't expect the government to treat them likewise, just as they didn't treat kidnappers and robbers the same way they treated the militants. Hope you follow my drift? I believe these other groups can be tamed by proper policing and combined communal efforts.

I don't know how the government wants to do this (the negotiation), but they have to one way or another bring those guys to the table, talk and put an end to this wanton chaos. I wanna be able to travel up North without fear of having my limbs or jaw blown off at some point.

But whatever it is, I'm of the opinion the current military campaign is sustained and increased to such an extent the capabilities of the terrorists is significantly depleted. The government cannot afford to negotiate from a point of weakness.

Hunger Bad...... Find food eat

IzonOwei:
One solution: divide the damn country and then the north would stand up to fight bokoharam head on....the moment the north realizes that they are harming only themselves and not in extension Nigeria as it is now then the insurgency would stop...let them live with themselves as a country and you would see chamges...how can a region be dragging a big country like nigeria back since its inception..?..

When your neighbours roof is on fire you help out other wise when fire spreads to your roof you will be on your own

mikolo80:
When your neighbours roof is on fire you help out other wise when fire spreads to your roof you will be on your own

how do you help people who are not willing to help themselves because of religion..it is obvious the leaders in the north are not willing to corporate to bring an end to the insurgency in the region...look at years of backwardness due to high level of uneducated persons which has given space for the radicalization of young minds...the nothern political and religious leaders should join hands to bring an end to this madness called bokoharam...

IzonOwei:
how do you help people who are not willing to help themselves because of religion..it is obvious the leaders in the north are not willing to corporate to bring an end to the insurgency in the region...look at years of backwardness due to high level of uneducated persons which has given space for the radicalization of young minds...the nothern political and religious leaders should join hands to bring an end to this madness called bokoharam...

you persevere.you SHOW them there is a better way. Did Mary slessor not save twins. Did white missionaries not change us to christians. Did Islam not take root. Just say that you don't have what it takes but stop spreading ignorance pessimism and doom.If it were easy everyone would do it.

For negotiation to be possible with these demons, Boko Haram must first surrender their arms willingly by themselves. They must show REAL desire to quit acts of terror. Their repentance process must span 24 months. If no bombs flying around, no attacks on innocent people and no marauders go about killing villagers during these 24 months, then government MAY negotiate with them, otherwise nothing. Government cannot negotiate with demons when they are still transacting their demonic business.
At the moment, there is NO basis for Negotiations with Boko Haram terrorist.
Unfortuntately with the APC led Buhari/Daura Magician administration, anything is possible. We are watching.

gensteejay:
You chose to politicize the grave situation. Do you have evidences to back your various allegations in this post? Or are the allegations mere innuendos, to be taken with levity?

APC man. You are either from the South West or a muslim. I do not blame you. What is not correct about what I posted? People like you see the truth and call it something else. I am sure you were one of those accusing GEJ of sponsoring Boko Haram.

I am also sure you are one of those that supports amnesty for the killers and believe the kidnap scam. We know you guys.


Emmanuel Bosun said it and people did not believe.

Exactly what he said in the video below is what is happening in the country now:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FhYpKBKusQ

People called him names. the difference is that the Muslims are all united politically. That is why some people from the SE+SS voted for Boko haram Party but no Yoruba Muslim voted for GEJ.

Enjoy your change Nigeria.

mikolo80:
you persevere.you SHOW them there is a better way. Did Mary slessor not save twins. Did white missionaries not change us to christians. Did Islam not take root. Just say that you don't have what it takes but stop spreading ignorance pessimism and doom.If it were easy everyone would do it.

PERSEVERE WITH THE NORTH?....these people cant be helped...dont you get it...

PussyJuice77:
APC man. You are either from the South West or a muslim. I do not blame you. What is not correct about what I posted? People like you see the truth and call it something else. I am sure you were one of those accusing GEJ of sponsoring Boko Haram.

I am also sure you are one of those that supports amnesty for the killers and believe the kidnap scam. We know you guys.


Emmanuel Bosun said it and people did not believe.

Exactly what he said in the video below is what is happening in the country now:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FhYpKBKusQ

People called him names. the difference is that the Muslims are all united politically. That is why some people from the SE+SS voted for Boko haram Party but no Yoruba Muslim voted for GEJ.

Enjoy your change Nigeria.

What were you saying?! What do you know about me that you just uttered gibberish?!! I don't waste my time and mental energy arguing with bigots like you whose hatred for some region/religion has beclouded his sense of reasoning. FYI, I don't support any of the political parties; I only support good governance.

IzonOwei:
PERSEVERE WITH THE NORTH?....these people cant be helped...dont you get it...

If you say so,but unless you have a plan for genocide perseverance is your only play. But if you want to give up without trying please be my guest. Nobody said it'd be easy.