Here is a catalogue of past negotiations with Boko Haram, which turned out to be phantom deals

AYORINDE OLUOKUN

In July 2013, for instance, one Imam Muhammadu Marwana, who claimed to represent Boko Haram, announced that the sect had taken a decision to end its insurgency. The purported member of Boko Haram, who spoke on the Hausa Service of Radio France International, asked Nigerians to forgive the sect’s past murderous activities. He also absolved the sect from the attack on Government Secondary School, Mamudo, Yobe State.
“We are seeking forgiveness from the people over the number of people killed in the country. I appeal to those who lost their loved ones to our activities to forgive us and on our side we have forgiven all those who committed atrocities against us. I want to state clearly that we have no hands in the unfortunate attack on the secondary school (Government Secondary School, Mamudo, Yobe State),” said Marwana, who was described as an influential member of the insurgent group. He made the announcement days after the Federal Government raised a 25-man committee to work out modalities for granting amnesty to the sect.
Marwana said Minister of Special Duties and chairman of the Peace and Dialogue Committee in the North, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, signed the ‘agreement’ on behalf of the Jonathan government. It was on the eve of Ramadan and Nigerians wanted peace. “We have sat down and agreed that Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lidda’awati wal Jihad, known as Boko Haram will lay down their arms as part of the agreement so as to end the insurgency. Government agreed with ceasefire and will look into ways to ensure that the troops relax their activities till the final take off of the ceasefire,” Turaki told his interviewers.
But the agreement turned out to be spoof as the insurgent group stepped up its deadly campaign thereafter. Also, on 28 January 2013, a purported Boko Haram commander identified as Muhammed Abdulazeez Ibn Idris had announced a ceasefire deal on behalf of Shekau, the leader of the sect. Claiming the truce was the outcome of meetings with Borno State government officials and Boko Haram, he said the sect agreed to end its insurgency out of concern for women and children who have borne the brunt of activities of the sect. Idris had asked that former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, should serve as a negotiator in the talks. But Buhari dismissed the request, accusing the ruling PDP of deliberately using the purported Boko Haram emissary to portray him as a sponsor of the sect to discredit him politically.
Isa Gusau, the spokesman for the Borno State governor, confirmed that government was engaged in talks with Idris’ faction of the sect, which resulted in the ceasefire declaration. “We are in a desperate situation and an end to the cycle of violence is our priority. We know that we are dealing with a faction of the group, which provides an avenue for broader negotiations and ceasefire with all the other factions within the group to end the violence.”
“I don’t think Abdulazeez is representing BH,” said Zannah, at the time. “The group attaches much importance to leadership and a declaration as monumental as a ceasefire would not come from anybody other than Shekau,” he added.
Just like he faulted the ongoing deal, Zannah noted that the sect “always bases its stance on dialogue on Islamic precepts and not on humanitarian sentiments,” Zannah said. Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, spokesman for the Joint Task Force (JTF) , a special military fighting against the insurgents in Maiduguri, had at the time said the military would continue to carry out its operations against the Islamist group. On its part, the then CDS, Admiral Ola Sa’id, demanded a one month peace guarantee from the terrorists for the government to take the ceasefire seriously.
However, about a month later, leaflets, in which Shekau repudiated the ceasefire declaration and vowed to continue deadly attacks, were in circulation. Members of the sect continued their kidnapping, suicide bombing and even killed some polio immunisation workers in Kano to show that they were not part of any of such ceasefire deal anyway. The same Idris had in November 2012 approached government for a peace deal on behalf of Boko Haram, on condition that former Borno governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, would be arrested and prosecuted over the killing of sect leader Mohammed Yusuf and sect members during the 2009 BH uprising in Maiduguri. Sheriff was governor of the state at the time.
Ironically, truce talks believed to have the blessing of the sect had always ended up being sabotaged. In 2012 for instance, the sect nominated Dr. Datti Ahmed, a Kano-based medical doctor and Muslim cleric, alongside Comrade Sani, to represent it in talks with government. But Ahmed, who has been involved in the promotion of the Muslim Sharia legal system the sect is advocating to be imposed on all parts of the country, withdrew from the mediation with the government, over claims of government’s insincerity and leakage of the details of meetings to the media.
Also, on 22 August 2012, the sect pulled out of talks with government representatives in Kaduna following the arrest of one of its senior commanders, Abu Dardaa, whom it had sent for talks. Also, government refused to follow through negotiations that would have gotten the Chibok girls released early in the year in exchange for Boko Haram commanders in its custody. The negotiation was handled by the Australian cleric, Stephen Davis. Government has been blowing hot and cold on the issue of negotiation with the sect as a way of ending the insurgency.