OBSERVERS note that the recent decision by a faction of the Boko Haram insurgents to surrender arms and embrace dialogue rekindles the hope of bring back the kidnapped schools girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno.
Centre for Crisis Communication, a non-governmental organisation which engages in crisis information and communication management, recalls that the insurgents kidnapped more than 200 of the school girls in 2014.
“The efforts by some members of the group to get across to our centre and the discussions we had are encouraging.
“We have taken measures also to ascertain the genuineness or otherwise of these persons; we believe they are ready for genuine dialogue.
“However, discussions are still ongoing and nothing concrete has been arrived at but it is an opportunity to interact with what I call insiders in the Boko Haram group.
“From discussions held so far, the members seem to be speaking on behalf of a cross-section of the group.
“They expressed willingness to come forward to make certain proposals on behalf of other members of the group.
“This position is predicated on calls made to the centre by some members of the Boko Haram insurgency group requesting for genuine and comprehensive dialogue that could lead to coming out of the sect members to renounce membership.
“The centre, however, suggests that such dialogue should be done with every sense of caution and responsibility, bearing in mind the previous disappointments that attended attempts at negotiation.
“The Boko Haram challenges have continued to become an intractable crisis situation to our nation,’’ retired Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, the Executive Secretary of the centre, said.
He also recalled that Gov. Kashim Shetima of Borno, recently noted that innocent residents of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and other parts of Nigeria lived in deep agony, having lost their kinsmen to insurgency.
“Some prominent Nigerians have in recent times canvassed the idea of dialogue with the Boko Haram insurgents.
“The option of dialogue according to them, at the moment, provides a leeway of not only safely rescuing the kidnapped school girls but to, perhaps, bringing to an end, the orgy of violence unleashed on innocent Nigerians by the group’’.
“Considering the unspeakable atrocities which the group has visited on Nigeria and Nigerians, this option is no doubt a hard sell.
“However, the recent statement by President Muhammadu Buhari on government’s readiness to negotiate with credible members of the sect has rekindled hope for dialogue,’’ he observed.
Supporting this observation, analysts believe that the group’s position appears logical, insisting that dialogue remains one of the most powerful methods of resolving intractable conflicts.
The analysts note that even countries with advanced military technologies had had causes to resort to dialogue as a pragmatic conflict resolution mechanism, particularly when military options fail to resolve the challenge.
They recall that the U.S., which initially ruled out negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, later entered into a dialogue through President Hamid Kharzai of the country.
They also recall that in 1979, the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics pledged never to negotiate with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan but at the end of the day, the Soviets were forced to withdraw from the country after 10 years of intense fighting.
They note further that the Israeli government is sometimes compelled to employ dialogue to resolve some of its intractable crises with the Palestinian militants.
“In May 1985, the Israeli government negotiated the release of 1,150 Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command.
“The exchange was called the Jibril Deal in recognition of the input of the leader of the group, Ahmad Jibril, in the prisoner-swap arrangement.
“Israel and Hizballah also carried out three prisoner-exchanges in 1996, one of which saw the release of the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Joseph Fink and Rahamim Alsheich, in exchange for the remains of 123 Lebanese soldiers.
“Similarly, Hizballah had a cause to release 25 members of the South Lebanon Army, an army loyal to Israel, in exchange for 25 Lebanese prisoners from the Khima Prison in south Lebanon.
“Records also have it that in 1983, six Israeli soldiers, who were held by the Palestine Liberation Organisation for more than 14 months, were exchanged for 4,500 Palestinian prisoners,’’ they observe.
They argue that these developments, perhaps, reinforces the decision of U.S. President Barak Obama to negotiate with the outlawed Taliban group for the release of a U.S. soldier, who was held in Afghanistan.
Under the deal, Bowe Bergdahl, 28, a sergeant in the U.S. army, who had been in the Taliban captivity since June 30, 2009, was recently, released in exchange for five high-profile Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo.
Sharing similar sentiments with the analysts, Mr Abdullahi No-Sweat, one of Nigeria’s most adventurous journalists, commended government’s readiness to negotiate with the insurgents.
The 77-year-old journalist, who had spent a greater part of his productive years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kashmir and Algeria, among others, said that there was no country that succeeded in fighting armed struggles through the use of force alone.
“We have seen what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kashmir and Algeria; the U.S.
“During the administration of George Bush U.S. said it would not negotiate with terrorists in Afghanistan.
“But now, Obama is negotiating with the Taliban through President Hamid Kharzai of Afghanistan.
“Nigeria should take a lesson from what happened when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and pledged never to negotiate with the Mujahideen.
“At the end of the day, it was a disastrous withdrawal for the Soviets after 10 years of fighting; force should not be the only option to solve the Boko Haram problem.
“This is because if government insists on it, no one can predict the end of the problem,’’ he said.
No-Sweat said that the best way to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency was for the government to negotiate with the group.
He observed that countries with similar problems such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kashmir and Algeria, had realised that negotiation was the best way out of the problem.
He advised the government not to be bothered about the conditions initially given by the Boko Haram sect for dialogue.
“Once the process of genuine dialogue with the sect members and their leaders starts; the group’s position might shift to more acceptable conditions,’’ he said.
No-Sweat, nonetheless, emphasised that the security challenges facing Nigeria were more of a sociological phenomenon, insisting that its solutions should also be viewed from that angle.
Similarly, Sen. Shehu Sani, a human rights activist, urged the Buhari administration not to ignore the offer for dialogue from some of the insurgents.
Analysts, therefore, opine that previous experiences on how to tackle insurgency might have motivated the decision by Buhari to dialogue with genuine leaders of the insurgents.
But Buhari insisted that the dialogue with the group could only take place provided doing so would guarantee the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls.
Speaking in a recent interview, he said: “If we are convinced that the leadership of Boko Haram that presents itself can deliver those girls, we will quickly negotiate what they want.’’
Whether or not there is dialogue option, he assured Nigerians that the present administration would end Boko Haram insurgency by the end of this year.
All the same, analysts insist that government must plan on how to involve religious and traditional leaders in running the affairs of the country.
According to them, such arrangements can be achieved via the establishment of a national commission on religious affairs to serve as a platform for preventing crises.
