Re: Onaiyekan’s call for dialogue with Boko Haram

If anything, it is another option that could help in bringing the insurgency in the North East region to an end. Some well meaning people, including His Eminence, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, have suggested it with the possibility of granting the insurgents amnesty just the same way members of MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of Niger […]

If anything, it is another option that could help in bringing the insurgency in the North East region to an end. Some well meaning people, including His Eminence, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, have suggested it with the possibility of granting the insurgents amnesty just the same way members of MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta) were granted by President Umaru Yar’adua before his unfortunate death.
The suggestion was first repudiated. It is through dialogue that the insurgents’ demands would be known. Dialogue is not detrimental to government. A lot could be achieved from it. The USA engaged the Taliban in Afghanistan, corroborating the Hausa adage “Durkusawa wa wada ba gajiyawa bane” (Pausing to hearken is not weakness). We must remember some things.
The insurgents have no rules of engagement. As we all know, “The stone that a builder refuse, shall be the head corner stone”. The issue of dialogue, if rejected now, would recur some other day.

Abbas Liman <[email protected]>;