Negotiate Now Or Else

When this madness called Boko Haram started in the North, we were attaching politics to almost everything that has to do with addressing the issues headlong and now the crisis has gotten out of hand.

The bombings and slaughtering going on has never been seen before in a sane society. Little wonder,we have been described by countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, as a failed state like Somalia, Iraq and Syria.


Or is it the abduction of the poor and innocent girls in Chibok, thousand deaths and more displaced, houses have been razed not forgetting schools that have been destroyed?

The government kept throwing tantrums at each other. When any sane person speaks out on the cause of the menace ravaging the country, he gets the harshest of response.

Or how would one explain the case of the late National Security Adviser Andrew Azazi whom asserted that the menace brewed out of the wrangling from the PDP internal crisis. What happened to him afterwards? He was shown the way out. Was that right? Do they care about rightness? Are we not at the mercy of our leaders? Do we have leaders? It’s either the Presidency and his plethora of aides blaming the APC and Buhari or Shettima, Kwankwaso and the opposition pointing at the other side.

It has been one blame game too many at the detriment of the people. We all in the South can only imagine the plight of our brothers and sisters in the North. We don’t know how they feel. I really do feel for them. Just try and envisage a situation  without telephone lines for months just like it was with those states under emergency or imagine your child or sister was one of those abducted school girls.

Now back to the subject matter, I agree it is absolutely wrong to negotiate with a terrorist group especially one that has brought carnage and bloodbath upon us and our beloved country. But in a situation like the one we find ourselves where our government and security forces seem helpless and inept in curbing the insurgence, what do we do? Our children are being abducted left, right and center, our collective good is being torn apart. Should we fold our hands and do nothing? Do they not say drastic time calls for drastic measures? Or are we not in drastic times?

Maybe it is not drastic enough. Didn’t the then Prime minister of Republic of Ireland Mary Robinson shake hands with Jerry Adams leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA)? Did I hear we are not Republic of Ireland? I also remember Joyce Snow one time American Ambassador met with Joseph Koine leader of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA); a group that also abducted scores of girls in the late 1990s.

This same government set up an amnesty committee led by the Minister of Special Duties Alhaji Tanimu Turaki to dialogue with the group and I ask, what is the difference between dialoguing and negotiating?

At least just last week on the BBC, Alhaji Turaki was of the view that the proposed dialogue with the sect was still on the table. Should we disregard him? It is a difficult choice, but with the olive branch from Abubakar Shekau, Is Shekau to be trusted? I think the government should embrace it and stop this further waste of lives and property however, my caveat would be; the government should negotiate on strong terms and not as a weaker partner. And they should just bring back our girls.