President Goodluck Jonathan has urged the Islamic sect, Boko Haram members to identify themselves and clearly state their demands as a basis for talks. He however acknowledged the fact that military confrontation alone will not end their insurgency.
Speaking with Reuters in Abuja yesterday on Boko Haram, President Jonathan said, “If they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason we are resisting, this is the reason we are confronting government or this is the reason we destroy some innocent people and their properties … then there will be a basis for dialogue.
“We will dialogue, let us know your problems and we will solve your problems but if they don’t identify themselves, who will you dialogue with?”
He cautioned that the Boko Haram crisis would be much harder to resolve than the Delta conflict, which was largely defused in 2009 under an amnesty he helped broker. That was because the Islamist militants do not have a clear public figurehead or negotiable aims, he said.
“If anybody invited Osama bin Laden (to talks), he wouldn’t have appeared … Boko Haram, if you invite them, they will not come. They operate without a face; they operate without a clear identity, so it is difficult to interface with such a group.
“That is the greatest difference between Boko Haram … and the Niger Delta issue,” he said.
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