Boko Haram nominated Buhari for peace talks, says Jonathan | Politically motivated claim, Garba Shehu replies

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has claimed that Boko Haram once nominated the late Muhammadu Buhari, his successor, to negotiate on their behalf with the federal government.

Jonathan spoke in Abuja on Friday at the public presentation of “Scars”, a book written by Lucky Irabor, former chief of defence staff (CDS).

The former president said the insurgents mentioned Buhari after his administration set up committees to explore dialogue with the group.

“One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram, nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government,” Jonathan said.

‘BOKO HARAM NEVER NOMINATED BUHARI’

However, in a statement, Garba Shehu, former presidential spokesperson, dismissed the claim as false and politically motivated.

“If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that Mr Jonathan is making a false start,” Shehu said in a statement.

Shehu said neither Muhammed Yusuf nor Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the insurgent group, ever nominated Buhari.

He added that Shekau frequently denounced and threatened Buhari, who narrowly escaped a Boko Haram bomb attack in Kaduna in 2014.

The former presidential aide recalled that Buhari had, at the time, denied knowledge of any nomination.

Quoting Buba Galadima, former national secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Shehu said Buhari described the reports as “speculation” and insisted no one had contacted him.

“What led to the misleading information was that a faction of the terrorist group, possibly sponsored by Buhari’s opponents, staged a press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through a certain Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno, saying that the sect would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and the then Senator, now late Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, also late, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the federal government,” the statement reads.

“Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram, who claimed that he had “no mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau.

“Speaking on the issue, the then CPC national publicity secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, now late, lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for latching on Buhari’s alleged nomination for political reasons.

“Fashakin described Buhari’s purported nomination as the latest gambit in the desire of this organically corrupt PDP-led Federal Government in diverting the attention of the unsuspecting Nigerian public from the ongoing massive looting of their common patrimony.”

He advised the former president to “look for a better story” if he is seeking political relevance ahead of 2027.