Boko Haram once nominated Buhari to lead their team – Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed that Boko Haram insurgents once selected ex-President Muhammadu Buhari to speak on their behalf during proposed peace talks with the Federal Government.

Jonathan made the revelation on Friday in Abuja during the public presentation of Scars, a book written by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.).

According to him, his government set up multiple committees to explore dialogue with the terror group. In one of such attempts, the insurgents named Buhari as their preferred mediator.

Jonathan said this gave him the impression that Buhari would have had a better chance to negotiate their surrender once he became president. However, he noted that the crisis endured throughout Buhari’s tenure.

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He explained: “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 and have a discussion with the government committee, 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 it was still there till today.”

Jonathan stressed that Buhari’s inability to completely end the insurgency showed that the Boko Haram challenge was deeper than many perceived.

He said: “If you conduct research and interview many people, you will only get part of the story, but never the full story of Boko Haram. I was there. Boko Haram started in 2009 when I was vice president. I took over in 2010 and spent five years battling the insurgency until I left office.

“I thought that after I left, within a reasonable time, General Buhari would wipe them out. But even today, Boko Haram is still there. The issue of Boko Haram is far more complex than it is often presented.”

Jonathan urged Nigeria to adopt a broader approach to resolving the crisis, noting that poverty alone did not account for the group’s persistence.

He recalled that his administration tried several strategies that did not yield the desired results: “If it was only about hunger—because we tried different options—I don’t want to sound like I’m defending my government. That will be left for history when we document our books. But I believe we did our best: we set up different committees and tried various approaches during the five years I was in office. I believe the late Buhari, too, must have tried his best.”

Jonathan also described the 2014 abduction of Chibok schoolgirls as an indelible scar on his presidency. He expressed hope that insurgent leaders, like actors of the Nigerian Civil War, might one day document their motives to provide clearer insights into their actions.

He said: “It is a scar I will die with. But perhaps later, more details may become known, and that too has to do with Boko Haram. What did they really want? … I pray that one day, some of the Boko Haram leaders may be literate enough to document what they have done, so that people will truly understand what they wanted. It is similar to the story of the Nigerian Civil War.”

The former president further argued that Boko Haram’s access to sophisticated weapons indicated external support, insisting that a carrot-and-stick strategy might be necessary to defeat the group.

He said: “Issue of carrots and the stick may be adopted, and yes, probably the needs are there, but if you look at the weapons they use, and you value the weapons, then you know that these are not hungry people.

“So, the soldiers that sometimes capture some of the weapons will see better, but the weapons they use, the ammunition they use, sometimes they even have more ammunition than our soldiers.

“Where are these guns, sophisticated weapons coming from? And you begin to see that the external hands are also involved, especially when I was president.”*

Boko Haram, which emerged in Borno State in the early 2000s, became a major national threat after its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, died in police custody in 2009. By 2012, reports had suggested that the sect named Buhari among northern leaders it trusted to mediate with government. Buhari, however, rejected the role, accusing Jonathan’s administration of attempting to politicise the crisis.