President Buhari Open To Negotiation With Boko Haram

President Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Friday, hinted in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, that the current administration has said that it is open to negotiations with the Boko Haram sect in order to find a lasting solution to the security crisis in the country, if the group is willing.

In the said interview, Mr. Adesina opined that the Buhari administration is not ruling out negotiations with the sect if it would put an end to the activities of the group, stating that the insurgents had attacked so many villages and killed scores of people.

BBC:  Is the Nigerian Government  considering negotiations with the insurgent group?

Adesina replied:

“If they are willing, why not? You know attempts have been made for negotiations in the past and they didn’t work. Every reasonable person would want to see the end to this insurgency. So if they are willing, why not? You can’t rule that out.”

"These were very vicious attacks. People were killed in scores and it’s so sad,” he said.

Recall President Buhari had during his inauguration speech said he had launched a strategy to deal with the sect by relocating the military headquarters to Maiduguri, Borno State.

When Mr Adesina was asked if the planned negotiation would work, he said:

“This is going to work. There are machineries being put in place. It’s going to work. The recent killings by the sect were meant to break our resolve, to weaken it, but that will stop. It remains a priority to him (Buhari) to deal with the group.

“You will notice that his first two weeks of administration were dedicated to tackling the insurgency. He visited Chad and Niger Republics and the following week, the Presidents of those countries also visited him in Abuja.

“The President of Benin Republic and the Defence Minister of Cameroon visited him; machinery is being put in place and once we’re through, we will see the end of the group. The target time for the deployment of the multinational force is July ending; that is in a couple of weeks.”