Intrigues over Obasanjo’s Boko Haram peace deal

Obasanjo’s peace deal, which he wants President Goodluck Jonathan to implement, includes offer of amnesty to Boko Haram followers; compensation to families of killed sect leaders and other victims of the sect’s violence; rebuilding of destroyed homes of sect followers; as well as special fund allocations to some states to tackle poverty and unemployment.   […]

Obasanjo’s peace deal, which he wants President Goodluck Jonathan to implement, includes offer of amnesty to Boko Haram followers; compensation to families of killed sect leaders and other victims of the sect’s violence; rebuilding of destroyed homes of sect followers; as well as special fund allocations to some states to tackle poverty and unemployment.

 

However, there are indications that the proposals, especially as regards dialogue and granting amnesty to the sect members, have set the former president at loggerheads with top-notch government men who feel the sect does not deserve any kid-gloves approach. Indeed, the former president is said to be angry with Jonathan, who initially appeared to have bought into the proposals only to back out later without explanations.

Boko Haram violence, including bombings and targeted killings, which spread from its Maiduguri base to Abuja and other states over the past one year, has been a source of great concern for many Nigerians.

It is due to these concerns that spirited efforts are being initiated by leaders to solve the Boko Haram crisis, which caused the country to be placed on the map of terrorist-infested nations.

The Federal Government recently received a report of the Galtimari committee, which recommended, among others, the setting up of a team headed by the Sultan of Sokoto to dialogue with the sect. Government is yet to issue a whitepaper on the report.

Why Obasanjo jumped into the fray

It is in this context of concerted efforts for peace that Chief Obasanjo embarked on a private initiative to broker a truce between Boko Haram and the Federal Government. Obasanjo’s initiative was premised on dialogue, which he considered as the best option to end the militancy.

A reliable source told Weekly Trust that Obasanjo’s concern was informed by his realisation that the military operations so far have not yielded the desired results despite the huge expenditure involved.

“He believes strongly that the dialogue option is the best in handling the Boko Haram issue, just like the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua did in tackling the Niger Delta militancy,” the source, who is in the know of Obasanjo’s efforts, said.

“He believed that like the late Yar’adua successfully did, Jonathan could achieve peace in the North East with the militant group by dangling the same carrots Yar’adua dangled to the Niger Delta militants.”

Another factor that goaded Obasanjo into jumping into the fray is pressure from the west. The international community, particularly the United States and Britain, are concerned about insecurity in Nigeria, hinging their fear on the belief that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Somalia’s Al-Shabab  are trying to align with Boko Haram to target western interests. The western powers consider Obasanjo as about the only statesman who could persuade Jonathan to do something about the issues.

Then, there is what the former president believes to be a great threat to national unity and cohesion in the Boko Haram militancy.

These, among other things, informed Obasanjo’s rather bold step of initiating the dialogue between the group and the government. It was in the light of these that on September 14 he paid a surprise visit to the families of slain Boko Haram leader Mohammad Yusuf and his in-laws. Also, the former president wrote out a comprehensive peace plan for onward presentation to Jonathan.

Roadmap to peace, the Obasanjo way

When he decided to jump into the peace-seeking efforts, Obasanjo travelled to Maiduguri where he visited families and in-laws of the slain Boko Haram leader. Obasanjo’s meeting with these families took place between 10am and 2pm. He also visited the destroyed homes and mosque of the sect in Maiduguri.

“Immediately after the meeting he flew from Maiduguri to Abuja and met with Jonathan around 4pm the same day. He briefed the president on his discussions with the group,” our source said.

Obasanjo also specifically told the president about his amnesty proposal to the Boko Haram just like that of the Niger Delta militants, saying if the Niger Delta amnesty programme could work, then it should be applied to the Boko Haram, thereby saving the huge cost of executing the military operations going on in the area.

Part of the amnesty plan, according to Weekly Trust investigations, is that the Federal Government should set up two trust funds to cater for the families of the Boko Haram victims as well as the families of the law enforcement officers killed or maimed in the crisis.

“Obasanjo specifically told the president that for the peace deal to hold, the families of the late Yusuf, his in-law Fugu and the slain former commissioner Buji Foi, among other victims of the 2009 uprising, must be adequately compensated,” the source said.

Also, the headquarters, mosques, schools and residences of the members of the group destroyed during the 2009 military-police operations should be rebuilt by the government.

This deal, Obasanjo said, should be administered through an educational and welfare trust fund, to be established as part of the peace process. This fund is to cater for the education and welfare of the victims’ families as well as the group members. Part of it also would be used to create vocational centres for skill acquisitions and employment generation.

This was informed by Obasanjo’s belief that abject poverty is one of the leading factors fuelling the insurgency. “Obasanjo told the president how the Boko Haram families he met brought out certificates of their children who have completed their education but without anything to do,” the source said.

The second trust fund is to be dedicated to the families of all the law enforcement officers that died during the insurgency. This include the families and victims of the bomb blasts blamed on the group, such as the United Nations Building bombing, Police Force Headquarters bombing and others.

Also as part of the peace deal, the Federal Government should release all members of the group in detention, who are yet to be taken to court for prosecution. Government should also provide special fund allocations to the states of Borno and Yobe, seen as major bases of the sect, “to combat abject poverty with a view to neutralising the security threat the area is posing to the rest of the North and the country in general, like it’s being done in the Niger Delta.”

A source said President Jonathan promptly agreed to implement Obasanjo’s proposals. The two leaders agreed that implementation would start as soon as Obasanjo returns from a United States trip which he was embarking on the following day. It was on that note that Obasanjo left the Villa.

Jonathan’s initial go-ahead to OBJ

Sources revealed that Obasanjo warned Jonathan of unpalatable implications of allowing the Boko Haram insurgency to fester. He particularly cited the reported influx of the army of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi (now late), whose army are said to have been fleeing to neighbouring countries that included Niger Republic.

“Obasanjo didn’t mince words in telling the president the need to dialogue with the group before they start getting foreign aids in terms of intelligence, weaponry and strategies. The time for them to get that is in the threshold bearing in mind the influx of Gaddafi’s mercenaries and their alleged presence in Niger Republic,” the source said.

It was on that premise that the president gave his nod to Obasanjo’s dialogue proposal “but with a caveat that the former president should be able to make the whole thing look like a private initiative, devoid of government’s backing.”  That caveat, according to our source, was informed by the president’s ‘worry’ of his security apparatuses.

Eventually, Obasanjo flew into Maiduguri on September 14, where he visited the family of the late Muhammad Yusuf and commiserated with them while appealing to them to forgive and forget their loss. Obasanjo went into Maiduguri virtually unannounced. Governor Kashim Shettima himself was on his way to Abuja when he learnt that the former president was heading to Maiduguri, according to reports.

On arrival in Maiduguri, Obasanjo proceeded to the family house of late Muhammad Yusuf and later to the demolished headquarters of the Boko Haram comprising their schools, mosques and homes. Obasanjo was received by the late Yusuf’s brother-in-law Babakura Fugu, whose father Baba Fugu Muhammad was shot dead by the police in 2009 during the Boko Haram uprising.

During the visit, the former president urged the family to forgive and forget and promised that he would take up their issue with the Federal Government with a view to finding an amicable solution to the problem. He also used the opportunity to appeal to the members of the group to give him a chance to act as a Federal Government mediator in the lingering crisis between them and the government.

Obasanjo’s visit was trailed by media frenzy and widespread optimism that the sect’s insurgency may soon be a thing of the past. Obasanjo’s initiative was also viewed in some quarters as a slap on the former leaders of northern extraction who failed to do anything in ending the crisis.

Now, Obasanjo blocked from Jonathan

Less than 24 hours after Obasanjo Maiduguri’s visit and subsequent meeting with Jonathan, Babakura who received him a day earlier was gunned down in mysterious circumstances. The Boko Haram sect, initially blamed for the killing, stated many times over that they were not responsible.

Given the confusion over who killed Babakura, Obasanjo smelt a rat. “He became suspicious. He believes that someone somewhere, who is benefiting from the chaos, is out to frustrate his effort,” our source said.

About three weeks ago, Obasanjo returned from the U.S. and sought to meet the president to actualise his peace deal. But he got the shock of his life when as he was blocked from meeting Jonathan by the president’s men. Presidential security aides told Obasanjo that the president was busy meeting with foreign diplomats, so he angrily flew back to Lagos. He never received a call from President Jonathan, and since then there was no communication between the two leaders over this matter.

From the onset, it was gathered that Obasanjo’s peace deal did not go down well with some elements very close to the president. The security apparatus, apparently in charge of the multi-billion-naira military operations, is allegedly one of those elements.

“Obasanjo’s concern that huge sums of money were being wasted in fighting Boko Haram without success has angered some security top shots. They keep on telling the president that the insurgents would be crushed. They also made the president believe that dialoguing with them will amount to giving in to terrorists, which places him in a position of disadvantage,” our source said. They also sold the president the idea that playing Obasanjo’s cards would send the president’s public rating nose diving and at the same time massaging the former leader’s ego.

It is clear that the president has swallowed the game plan of the insiders, thereby leaving Obasanjo out in the cold. Obasanjo’s frustration is compounded by the fact that Fugu’s family are now very angry with him. They said his visit cost the life of one of them and that the former president has yet to fulfil his promise to them. Right now Obasanjo is said to be very angry with the latest twist from the Presidency “to the extent that he wanted to come out public with all the details of his peace deal.” He was said to have been prevailed upon by some PDP stalwarts who believed that doing that would worsen matters, at least on the political front.

But it appears the former president is somehow letting out his feeling on the whole issue to the public. On Tuesday, Obasanjo was reported as telling the BBC radio what he would have done about the Boko Haram crisis if he were president.

Asked by an interviewer what he would do to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency if it had happened during his term as president, Obasanjo said: “What I will do to bring an end to the serial killings and bombings in the northern states, was the adaptation of the carrot and stick approach on the Niger Delta militants, where I invited 35 different leaders of the militants from the region and listened to all their grievances against the Federal Government and their traditional leaders, whom they alleged had been conniving with the latter.”

He said the carrot would include addressing “poverty and unemployment” in the North, while the stick could be in the form of dialogue and “massive intelligence gathering” by the security agents to root out perpetrators of the alleged serial killings and bombings.

What happens next?

President Jonathan appears to have taken contradictory positions on Boko Haram and on Niger Delta recently. According to a source, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala recently had cause to raise concerns over the huge amounts of money being spent on implementation of the Niger Delta amnesty. But the president insisted on maintaining the amnesty on the grounds that ending the spending on the process would bring back militancy in the oil-producing region.

Yet he appears to have been swayed by arguments against amnesty for Boko Haram.

It is not clear whether President Jonathan will have cause to change his mind and implement the Obasanjo Boko Haram peace plan. But for now, the rejectionists appear to have led the roadmap all the way into one of the filing cabinets at the Villa. Meanwhile, the bombings and targeted killings seem to defy the solutions being applied.