Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday described the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014 as a permanent scar on his administration.
The former president expressed hope that some leaders of the insurgent groups would eventually document their actions, similar to how key actors of the Nigerian Civil War wrote their own accounts, to provide clarity on the insurgency’s motives.
Jonathan spoke at the public presentation of Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, a book authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.).
He said, “One of the major scars on my government—and it will remain on my face, as Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it—is the issue of the Chibok girls.
“It is a scar I will die with. But perhaps later, more details may become known, and that too has to do with Boko Haram.
“What did they really want? Our chairman once raised the issue when he interviewed some of them, and they gave him certain perspectives. But I pray that one day, some of the Boko Haram leaders may be literate enough to document what they have done, so that people will truly understand what they wanted. It is similar to the story of the Nigerian Civil War.”
He said he felt the Boko Haram insurgency would end under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
This, he said, is because Boko Haram insurgents once nominated Buhari to represent them in negotiations with the federal government.
Jonathan, reflecting on the insurgency that defined much of his presidency, said his administration established several committees to explore options for peace with Boko Haram.
According to him, during one of such processes, the insurgents put forward Buhari as their preferred negotiator, and based on that, he felt it would have been easy for Buhari, when he emerged as president, to negotiate with the terrorists to surrender, but the insurgency has instead persisted.
“One of the committees we set up then, Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with government.
“So 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 is still there till today,” he said.
Jonathan said Buhari’s inability 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.
“So, it’s a bit complex, and not a matter of a single story. 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.”
Jonathan pointed out that the issue of Boko Haram was beyond hunger, adding that his administration employed many strategies but they did not work.
He said, “If it was only about hunger—because we tried different options—I don’t want to sound like I’m defending my government. 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.”
Jonathan urged the current administration to consider a carrot-and-stick approach to addressing the over-a-decade-long insurgency.
He said, “The issue of carrots and sticks may be adopted, and yes, probably the needs are there, but if you look at the weapons they use and value the weapons, then you know that these are not hungry people.
“So, the soldiers that sometimes capture some of the weapons will see better, but the weapons they use, the ammunition they use, sometimes they even have more ammunition than our soldiers. Where are these guns, sophisticated weapons coming from? And you begin to see that the external hands are also involved, especially when I was president.”
Boko Haram Did Not Nominate Buhari As Mediator – Garba Shehu
Meanwhile, former presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, yesterday said that Boko Haram did not nominate the late former President Muhammadu Buhari as their mediator as alleged by former President Jonathan.
In a statement, Shehu said, “We are compelled to make a response to a terrible statement made on the late president Muhammadu Buhari by his predecessor in office, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to the effect that Boko Haram had nominated him to represent them in a dialogue with the government.
“If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that “Mr Jonathan, you are making a false start.”
Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the Boko Haram terrorist group, never nominated Muhammadu Buhari for any such role. In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition.
“In 2014, Muhammadu Buhari escaped a bomb attack on his life by Boko Haram in Kaduna, in which his personal staff suffered various degrees of injury.
“Buhari’s campaigns focused on fighting Boko Haram and restoring security to Nigeria whenever he became president, putting him in direct opposition to the terrorist group’s leader.
“Contrary to the news making the rounds in those years that the radical Islamist extremist –Boko Haram had nominated General Muhammadu Buhari as the mediator between them and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the proposed peace talks, the retired Military General denied knowledge of his nomination.”
In a statement issued by the then national secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr Buba Galadima, Buhari, the national leader of the CPC said he was not aware of the appointment: “As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it,” Galadima said.
Continuing, the party secretary told reporters that “he (Buhari) said the whole thing to him, is just speculation. And since nobody has contacted him as a person for him to even know who is behind what, and what the motives of the whole exercise are, he would not speak to the press.” He revealed that Buhari, the 2011 presidential candidate of the CPC, further told him that as an elder statesman and a patriotic Nigerian, he will continue to pray until peace and tranquillity return to Nigeria.
What led to the misleading information was that a faction of the terrorist group, possibly sponsored by Buhari’s opponents, staged a press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through a certain Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno, saying that the sect would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and the then Senator, now late Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, also late, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the federal government.
Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram, who claimed that he had “no mandate from their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau.”
Speaking on to the issue, the then CPC national publicity secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, now late, lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for latching on to Buhari’s alleged nomination for political reasons.
Fashakin described Buhari’s purported nomination as “the latest gambit in the desire of this organically corrupt PDP-led Federal Government in diverting the attention of the unsuspecting Nigerian public from the ongoing massive looting of their common patrimony.”
Fashakin also said: “Without any scintilla of equivocation, General Muhammadu Buhari has never been directly or remotely connected with any insurrection or insurgency against the Nigerian nation and her people. He remains the quintessential patriot that continues to magnetise the very best across the ethno-religious boundaries within the Nigerian nation-space.”
The party chieftain accused the PDP of being responsible for the growing insecurity in the country, insisting:
“As we have stated in an earlier communication, the (PDP), as a corporate entity, is the harbinger of the insecurity travails of the Nigerian people for the sole reason of ensuring perpetuity in governance.”
Fashekun listed the three categories of Boko Haram and alleged that the PDP-led government is sponsoring one of them. “From recollection of events of the last two years, there are three variants of the Boko Haram: the original Boko Haram that is at daggers drawn with the Nigerian authority for the extra-judicial killing of their leader; the criminal Boko Haram that is involved in all criminality for economic reasons and of course, the most lethal of all, the Political Boko Haram, which this PDP-led Federal Government represents.
“The President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, had once alerted the nation of the ubiquitous presence of Boko Haram in his government, a fact aptly amplified by his erstwhile National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi.” He further drew instances from the revelations made by the State Security Service. “Undoubtedly, the latest revelations by the State Security Services (SSS) on the complicity of the top echelon of the PDP leadership in Boko Haram activities aptly bear testimony of the noxious subterfuge to extirpate the essence of our nationhood.”
To win in 2027, Dr Jonathan should look for a better story to tell Nigerians.
New Thinking Required To End Boko Haram – Obasanjo
In his remarks, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria can only defeat the Boko Haram insurgency when both the political and security leadership begin to think beyond the available narrative about the sect.
He added that documenting the experiences of those affected can help the country understand the issue and develop effective strategies to address it.
“In 2011, after Boko Haram had attacked the UN office here in Abuja, I went to Maiduguri to find out if there was Boko Haram, and what it was? Who were they? What are their objectives? What do they want? How can we satisfy them? And I found out, yes, there was Boko Haram. I found they were not really aiming for anything political or anything seriously religious. But people who were looking for a better life, and anything else attached to that, are a better life for them.
“Have we understood that? If we have, have we taken the steps that we should take? If we have, why is it that after 15 years, Boko Haram is now gradually becoming part of our lives? Should we accept that? If we do not accept it, what should we do? How much do we know?”
“Even from the other side, and from this side, have we been active enough? Have we been proactive enough? I think we have to ask ourselves the necessary questions to be able to deal with this … something that is now becoming a monster within our country.”
The former president further stated that while Nigeria has faced various security challenges since independence, terrorist insurgency stood out for persisting for over 15 years without resolution, largely due to a lack of proper understanding of the group.
He noted that General Irabor’s book examines the past to identify factors that could be hindering progress in the present and future, as he praised the courage of the author to say things as they were.
Obasanjo said, “I believe that is what you have tried to do in your book. There is normally the tendency not to talk about it, let’s leave it, and I believe that we will get out of that culture.
“The history and life of any nation has the good, the bad, and the ugly. What is important is to look at it, and to think about it and when we have to find solutions; we may even look beyond what we can see. Let us think beyond what is available and I think that is what you have done here.
“I will urge and appeal to those who have things to say about this particular issue of Boko Haram to say it. We don’t even know where Boko Haram stops and banditry starts and kidnapping begins. They are all mixed together.”
“And by the time we go, even those who have been on the other side, who have been part of or a supporter of Boko Haram, for whatever Boko Haram is, let them write, let them speak up, and that way, we will be able to find solutions to these ugly problems.”
The author, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), said the book is a reflection of his personal experiences as a military officer.
He said the book was not an indictment but a soul-searching reminder to provide lasting solutions to the Boko Haram challenges, which have defied military solutions.
“In writing it, I sought to investigate the phenomenon, to examine its roots and complexities, and to contribute to finding lasting solutions to this national crisis.
“The account in this book is a painful truth, and I hope that it will elicit a national conversation that focuses attention on credible solutions to the nation’s challenges.”
Irabor’s Book, A Road Map to a Stable Nigeria – Tinubu
Also speaking at the event, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says General Irabor, in the book, provides guidance for the present and serves as a roadmap for the nation to build a safer future.
Tinubu, represented by the Minister of Defence, Badaru Abubakar, said Irabor has demonstrated that leadership in war is not solely about firepower but also about intellect.
He said Irabor, as Theater Commander, confronted an existential threat to our national identity with the desired determination and pragmatism.
He said, “Scars tell a story. They remind us of pain, but they also prove that survival is possible. Therefore, the scars we carry as a nation are evidence of our resilience. They remind us of the sacrifices of our heroes past, soldiers, displaced families, and communities.”
He added that the book challenges us to learn from those experiences and build a safer and more stable tomorrow.
“My administration is committed to that tomorrow. Under the Renewed Hope Agenda, we are determined to transform Nigeria into a nation of peace, opportunity, and unity. Security is at the heart of this vision.
“We are modernizing our armed forces with modern platforms and relevant technology. We are also streamlining intelligence-gathering capabilities and deepening regional partnerships to boost collective security. We are investing in a whole-of-society approach to security so that peace is not only won on the battlefield but sustained in daily life with the participation of citizens.”
“Let us use this occasion not only to acknowledge the book but also to affirm our commitment to working together toward a future where every Nigerian can live without fear, thrive in peace, and contribute to the nation’s greatness.”
He added that General Irabor’s book is a stark reminder that every scar is both a warning and a lesson that teaches us never to forget the cost of peace and never to abandon its pursuit.
In his remarks, former National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno called for a collective effort against Boko Haram. He identified defective governance and impaired national cohesion as factors hampering peace in the country. He said the struggle for power within the state, the share of resource allocations, and the fear of domination by ethnic nationalities were making it impossible to address the issue of insecurity.
He said the challenges can be addressed through national cohesion. “You cannot address insecurity in the absence of national cohesion. The issue of national cohesion is very important.”
He continued, “You cannot legislate love, and you cannot enforce affection; it is something that must come from within.”
Every Child Unaccounted For Is A Scar On Nigeria – Bishop Kukah
In his speech at the occasion, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto said Leah Sharibu and every Nigerian child unaccounted for in the insurgency incidents is a scar on Nigeria.
He said, “Now, the issue of Leah Sharibu and the Chibok girls, these are what the author refers to as the scars. And in my view, as long as Leah Sharibu is unaccounted for, as long as any of the abducted children in Nigeria is unaccounted for, every child that is unaccounted for is a scar on the face of Nigeria.”
Kukah, who is the book reviewer, said military efforts alone won’t end the Boko Haram insurgency, as the insurgents are fighting to die while the soldiers are fighting to stay alive.
Boko Haram Is The Wrong Name – Kukah
The bishop faulted the federal government for naming the insurgents Boko Haram, saying misnaming the group had implications.
“And I think this is where the Nigerian government has gotten it wrong. First of all, let’s not forget. We are the ones who gave them the name Boko Haram.
“They didn’t say that they are Boko Haram. We are the ones who gave them the name and because we gave them the name Boko Haram, we have become comfortable. It has affected our strategy.
“Boko Haram says their name is Jama’at Ahl al-Sunna li al-Da’wa wa al-Jihad. That is their name. And the English translation is people committed to the prophet’s teachings for the propagation of jihad. That’s what is in their blood. So, no matter how many bullets you shoot them with, and I will come to that point, they have told you this: what they are committed to, and in fairness to all of us, including those of us who are in this room, is there any Muslim who would say he is not committed to the teachings of the Holy Prophet? The challenge is what context of preaching.”
While charging political leaders to write biographies, he said the nation was already in trouble and needed solutions on the way out.
“The first, the Nigerian military must be inspired by this book to also create a sense of urgency about returning to the barracks so that their honour, their integrity, their professionalism can be guaranteed.
“But national security, because of the militarisation of the discourse, national security is about guns, it’s about bullets. But in reality, all these floods that are taking our people away in Nigeria, shouldn’t governors have foreseen that floods are a threat to Nigeria. It’s a national security issue. If the rains do not come, the threat of hunger is a security problem. So, we should see security therefore in a much more complex manner.”
He accused Northern leaders of using ‘Islamism’ as a tool to grab power, which he said was destructive to Islam.
“I’d like to use this opportunity to speak to my Muslim brothers, especially from Northern Nigeria. Islamism – that is what is called in political theology; in Christianity, it could be the same thing – that is, the instrumentalisation, the skewed usage, and the manipulation of religion as a tool for governance.
‘‘Nigeria is in a democracy and there is a way that good Muslims can participate in democracy, and good Christians can participate in democracy. But the idea that we want to use religion to enforce power is what Islamism is all about. It has become destructive to the religion itself. Suddenly now, in this day and age, we are here, I live in Sokoto.
“Everybody is talking about, they are killing Christians. Yes, they are killing Christians. But we are all going to come to a point where they are killing Nigerians. So, Islamism threatens to destroy the foundation of Islam as a sacred religion and we must collectively insist, because this is where Boko Haram started from. And this is why the danger, northern politicians, please remember.’’
Jihad Is Not About Killing Non-Muslims – Sultan
However, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, faulted Kukah’s claim.
He said: “I also want to correct a wrong notion that many non-Muslims hold about jihad. Jihad does not mean a Muslim must kill a non-Muslim. Jihad means ‘to strive’.
‘‘In every aspect of life, one strives to be the best they can be—to be a good Muslim, a good Christian, a good farmer, or a good engineer. Jihad is not about killing non-Muslims; that is a misconception that has persisted for decades.
“In addition, I want to clarify another issue. When Bishop Kukah spoke about Islamism, he may have used some words in a way that created misunderstanding, making Islam appear negative. But Islamism is not about seeking power for its own sake. Rather, Islam emphasises good governance in society. Whoever is in power—take, for example, President Goodluck Jonathan—we gave him 100 per cent support throughout his presidency. Nobody said anything negative about him, and he himself knows that.
‘‘So, Islamism is not what some people think. It is not about seizing power; it is about promoting good governance,” the Sultan said.
He said the insurgents do not reject Western education because many of them have acquired it, but that they are aggrieved with educated persons leading bad governance.
“If you have listened to some of their audio recordings—which I had the privilege of hearing—you would notice that they did not say ‘Boko is Haram.’ Many of them have gone to school, and as they explained, you cannot open someone’s brain and remove the education they have acquired. Whether one is an engineer, a doctor, or any other professional, that knowledge remains.
“What they are actually saying is that those who are educated are the ones leading bad governments. Their grievance is rooted in bad governance; they want freedom, and they want to live as they feel they should,” Sultan Sa’ad explained.
Present at the event were service chiefs, former and serving governors, and clerics.
Credit: Leadership