When the news broke out last week that former General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd), former military head of state, former civilian president of Nigeria and former chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, had held talks with relations of Boko Haram members in an attempt to free the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, many Nigerians could not make much out of it.
Obasanjo reportedly met penultimate weekend with people close to the sect, including relatives of senior Boko Haram fighters and intermediaries with the focus of freeing the girls through negotiation.
The former president who ruled the country as a soldier from 1976 to 1979 and as a civilian president from 1999 to 2007 had previously sought to negotiate with the insurgents in September 2011 after Boko Haram bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
He won the admiration of many when he flew to the Islamist’s base in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, to meet with the relatives of former Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who had been killed in police custody in 2009.
His efforts did not help stem the violence, thus creating room for doubt as to the legitimacy of the capacity for ceasefire of the people he contacted.
It is not clear who really initiated the Ota meeting. Obasanjo’s relationship with President Goodluck Jonathan whom he backed in 2011 presidential campaign but whose record he fiercely criticized as president in a letter released to the public in December last year has not been smooth.
Obasanjo is believed to be in full support for prisoner-for-hostage swap that would lead to the release of some of the girls in exchange for a group of Boko Haram fighters held in Nigerian custody.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration has reportedly,shortly, after the April 14 abduction of the girls, sent intermediaries to meet Boko Haram in the north east to negotiate the girls’ release.
This was bungled after his return from a security conference in Paris early May and the government has officially ruled out a prisoner swap.
Obasanjo is also of the opinion that Nigeria’s prestige in Africa as a major continental power had been diminished by President Jonathan decision to bring in foreign military help, including the United States.
Several factors now stand against Obasanjo’s ability to negotiate the release of the Chibok girls. One, as a private citizen whose relationship with the president has been damaged, Obasanjo might not have the authority to negotiate any deal on behalf of the government.
His criticism of the military on the pages of newspaper, that they were adopting “public relations”(perhaps he meant propaganda) in the war against insurgents is likely to hurt the army, whose sacrifice is least appreciated by Nigerians.
He is also credited with the statement that when he was head of state he did not stop Muslimsfrompracticing their Sharia. This is another unnecessary comment because no Nigerian leader, from Azikwe/Balewa to this moment, has stopped the Muslims from practicing the Sharia.
Dr. Stephen Davis, an Australian Cleric, is said to have been contracted by Jonathan to negotiate the release of the Chibok girls who were adopted from their school on April 14.Davishas been working secretly.
We support any means adopted by the government that will lead to the safe release of the Chibok schoolgirls, because we believe these girls deserve freedom. They deserve to be with their parents. They need our love.Nigeria is suffering from absence of statesmen- father figures whose voices will be respected at all time – men who will not be carried away by the wind of partisan politics.
