Former presidential aide Garba Shehu has denied claims by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan that Boko Haram once nominated Muhammadu Buhari to mediate peace talks with the Federal Government.
Jonathan had made the remark on Thursday at the launch of Scars, a book written by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.).
He said, “One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government. So I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari to represent them… 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 Shehu dismissed Jonathan’s statement in a release on Friday titled Boko Haram did not nominate Buhari as their mediator.
He said, “Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of Boko Haram, never nominated Muhammadu Buhari for any such role. In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition.”
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Shehu recalled that Buhari narrowly escaped a Boko Haram bomb attack in Kaduna in 2014, which injured some of his aides. He explained that the confusion came from a 2012 press conference in Maiduguri, where a faction led by Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz listed Buhari and some northern leaders as possible mediators.
“Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram, who claimed that he had ‘no mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau,’” Shehu added.
At the time, Buhari himself rejected the claim.
His party secretary then, Buba Galadima, said, “As at 10pm yesterday when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it… since nobody has contacted him as a person, he would not speak to the press.”
Shehu also accused Jonathan of reviving the controversy for political reasons ahead of the 2027 elections.
“To be president in 2027, Goodluck Jonathan should look for another story to tell Nigerians. To win in 2027, Dr. Jonathan should look for a better story to tell Nigerians,” he said.
The issue was once a hot debate before the 2015 elections, with Buhari’s CPC party dismissing the claim.
Rotimi Fashekun, the late CPC publicity secretary, said then: “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.”
Fashekun even accused Jonathan’s PDP government of creating insecurity, saying Boko Haram had three strands: the original sect, a criminal faction, and “the most lethal of all, the Political Boko Haram, which this PDP-led Federal Government represents.”