The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and
Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Friday, disclosed in an interview with the
BBC, that the Federal Government has said that it is open to
negotiations with the Boko Haram sect in order to find a lasting
solution to the security crisis in the country, if the group is willing.
In the interview, Adesina said the Federal Government was not ruling
out negotiations with the sect if it would put an end to the activities
of the group, stating that the insurgents had attacked so many
villages and killed scores of people.
When BBC asked if the Federal Government was considering
negotiations with the insurgent group, Adesina said:
"If they are willing, why not? You know attempts have been
made for negotiations in the past and they didn't work. Every
reasonable person would want to see the end to this
insurgency. So if they are willing, why not? You can't rule that
out."
"These were very vicious attacks. People were killed in scores
and it's so sad," he said.
The President had during his inauguration speech said he had
launched a strategy to deal with the sect by relocating the military
headquarters to Maiduguri, Borno State.
When asked if this would work, Adesina replied:
"This is going to work. There are machineries being put in
place. It's going to work. The recent killings by the sect were
meant to break our resolve, to weaken it, but that will stop. It
remains a priority to him (Buhari) to deal with the group.
"You will notice that his first two weeks of administration were
dedicated to tackling the insurgency. He visited Chad and
Niger Republics and the following week, the Presidents of
those countries also visited him in Abuja.
"The President of Benin Republic and the Defence Minister of
Cameroon visited him; machinery is being put in place and
once we're through, we will see the end of the group. The
target time for the deployment of the multinational force is July
ending; that is in a couple of weeks."
Posted by Adebayo A J