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
start?




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.
www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/news/my-encounter-with-boko-haram-foot-soldiers-barr-aisha/106520.html

okay

After this LONG piece What's OKAY?.

INTROVERT:
okay

back to the matter joor. Wow!!! She was really close O. Like these mai ruwa guys around my vicinity! Hmmm I can relate.

I hope boys Don commercialize this thing of being in bh's boy den

Unsad:
I hope boys Don commercialize this thing of being in bh's boy den

As in tourism?

Just like we said,boko haram was created to disrupt gej's government and now they have ran out of control.many of the northern elites knows the secret behind boko haram and they chose to remain silent.
Boko haram is politically,economically and religiously(islam) motivated.

Lawa o..

See tori.

Pls summarize

Summary of everything pls, am allergic to long story

Hmm... But people won't believe when they were told there is a political undertone to BokoHaram.

I believe her; Muhammed Yusuf was arrested and then killed to fustrate GEJ government and the end result is more bombing and killing.

Shekau has pledge allegiance to ISIS I do not think the amnesty programme will work.

IPOB Youth

This woman,as far as i'm concerned, is a full fledged boko haram sympathizer and co-conspirator. So she knew all along the individual members of boko haram who have been committing all these attrocities and yet never reported them to the relevant authorities. Infact,she cooked for them,supplied drugs to them for them to be doing more harm to innocent people,and here she is again indirectly campaigning for amnesty for. These are the kind of people sabotaging the efforts of the government on this fight. Who knows how many more like her out there? She should be arrested ASAP and made to divulge all she knows.

Interesting perspective.

Madam Wakil is a potential scammer. She knows no Boko Haram. Fact.

Chubhie:
Interesting perspective.

This really highlights the power of woman when she becomes a mother and is fully aware of herself.

Is this woman still with her conscience?

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?

If government can grant amensty to massob, opc, Niger deltan militant, why cant the grant amensty to Bokoharam? How many innocent lives did this group kill? None. Bt bokoharam killed more than sixteen thousands innocent lives and rendered some state usuless. This is the most dumbest and insensitive statement i have ever heard. What a diabolical woman!

LadyExcellency:
Is this woman still with her conscience?

My brother i hate this country, so many deception, insentivity and wickedness. Imagine what is coming out from this woman

hahn:


This really highlights the power of woman when she becomes a mother and is fully aware of herself.

True. I'm afraid of her life as a result of this interview. She could be sleeping with the fishes if she's not adequately protected from hence forth.

c33b33:
Hmm... But people won't believe when they were told there is a political undertone to BokoHaram.

I believe her; Muhammed Yusuf was arrested and then killed to fustrate GEJ government and the end result is more bombing and killing.

Shekau has pledge allegiance to ISIS I do not think the amnesty programme will work.

IPOB Youth

Mohamed Yusuf was killed during Yar'Adua's tenure.
I am not saying there isn't a political undertone to d whole issue sha.

TruthisGOD:
If government can grant amensty to massob, opc, Niger deltan militant, why cant the grant amensty to Bokoharam? How many innocent lives did this group kill? None. Bt bokoharam killed more than sixteen thousands innocent lives and rendered some state usuless. This is the most dumbest and insensitive statement i have ever heard. What a diabolical woman!

DSS SHOULD QUESTION THIS WOMAN....

Read the post below. He made sense.

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.

Let me get something straight, is this woman still allowed the luxury of freedom?
This 'interview' is nothing less than the confessional statement of a high ranking BH member, sympathizer and sponsor. If providing logistics in form of food, drugs and cash to a terrorist group isn't a treasonous offense, please tell me what is.

Please PMB, stop your media probe (you be Alien?) deal with Nigeria's security issues first. It's already past the 2 months you pledged during your campaign.

dokiOloye:
Mohamed Yusuf was killed during Yar'Adua's tenure.
I am not saying there isn't a political undertone to d whole issue sha.

Thank you for the correction.

IPOB Youth

MADAM YOU THINK SAY BABA NA GEJ. THIS YOUR 419 FORMAT NO GO WORK.