President, Civil Rights Congress (CRC), Shehu Sani, on Wednesday blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for not taking up the opportunity to end the activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the country.
He also opened up on why he declined to serve in the 26-member Presidential Committee empanelled by the President to constructively engage key members of the extremist sect.
The Human Right activist, who gave a blow-by-blow account on how the President frustrated the peace talks he initiated with members of the Islamic sect, who were open to discussions with the Federal Government on how to end the blood-letting insurgency.
He spoke at a seminar for Judges and Journalists organised by Konrad-Adenaver-Stitung (KAS), a German political foundation.
Sani, who presented a paper on “The Difficulties of Political Cases in Justice Delivery”, recalled how he persuaded former President Olusegun Obasanjo to visit the family of the slain leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, in Maiduguri, on a peace mission.
It would be recalled that Babakura Fugu, representative of the Mohammed Yusuf’s family that hosted and received Obasanjo in Maiduguri, was killed shortly after the meeting.
He said he opted out of the presidential committee because given his earlier experience with the presidency on the subject matter, he was convinced that it was not going to achieve anything.
According to him, “I independently reached out to leaders of the Boko Haram and offered myself to mediate on behalf of the Federal Government.
“And when they were ready to talk, and because I do not have the telephone numbers of President Goodluck Jonathan, I decided to reach out to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was also Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“I called him (Obasanjo) and narrated my encounter with members of the Boko Haram and he said, ‘Are you really sure of this?’. I said ‘yes’ and invited him to Maiduguri. “Thereafter, I reported back to the leaders of the Boko Haram that I was coming with former President Obasanjo.
“They agreed and gave us conditions that the meeting should take place in Maiduguri, with no security men and journalists involved”, he added.
Sani pointed out: “At the meeting, they came out with photographs and some documents and presented to Obasanjo, who assured them that he was going to take their grievance to the Federal Government after appealing to them to stop the killings.
“Obasanjo took those documents to the Villa and till that time, nothing has been done. But, Obasanjo told me that he has done his best.
“I made a second attempt by involving Dr. Dati Ahmed, who was a teacher to the founder of Boko Haram, the late Mohammed Yusuf, when he was a student.
“We brought him to Abuja to mediate with the Federal Government on behalf of the sect. We went to see the then National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, late General Owoye Andrew Azazi, who kept us waiting in his office for over three hours, only to call us to say that after consulting with Security Chiefs, he was told that from information reaching them, the Boko Haram members have run out of weapons and therefore can be overrun by the Federal Government and so there was no need to meet with them.
“At the end of the day, Dr. Ahmed was frustrated and we all left Abuja”, he stated.
Sani stressed: “We have done this for first and second time and it was frustrated, only for me to wake up one day to hear that my name was among the 26-member presidential Committee on Amnesty for Boko Haram members.
“So, when I turned it down, some people called me names and say many things about me, including the fact that I am not a patriotic Nigerian.
“I cannot think of any patriotism other than the efforts I have made. It took me three months to make contact with leaders of the Boko Haram.
“It is not an easy thing because you are dealing with a killer group that even goes after their members.
“When you give a committee two weeks, I know it was not going to work. But, before I threw in the towel, they (Boko Haram) told me that I should not turn this into a business thing.
“So, I have done the best I could and I know the committee will not achieve anything”, he added.
Other speakers at the event where Justice Ishaq Bello of the FCT High Court, who delivered a paper on “Procedures of Court Cases and the Roles of Public Prosecutors’; Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) on “Lawyers’ Relations to the Media and how far to go for clients”, among others.
Read more at Independent