Former President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed that Boko Haram insurgents once nominated the late former President Muhammadu Buhari to negotiate with the Federal Government on their behalf.
Speaking in Abuja at the public presentation of Scars, a book authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), Jonathan said the nomination came after his administration set up several committees to explore dialogue with the terrorist group.
“One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government,” Jonathan revealed.
The former president noted that he had hoped Buhari’s eventual rise to power in 2015 would pave the way for peace talks with the group.
“I felt that if they nominated Buhari and he later became president, it would have been easy to negotiate with them and end the crisis. But the insurgency still persisted till today,” he said.
Jonathan stressed that Buhari’s inability to end Boko Haram underscored the complexity of the insurgency, which goes far beyond political narratives.
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