Force won’t stop Boko Haram, says ACF

The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, yesterday, commended President Goodluck Jonathan’s resolve to end the Boko Haram insurgency soon but said that the use of force might not yield positive result.
Speaking with National Mirror, the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, said that dialogue remained the international best practice of ending terrorism.
The ACF said: “We are praying that President Jonathan will succeed to end terrorism as he has assured Nigerians. It’s unpatriotic for us to say Mr. President will fail. We can’t be negative to what President Jonathan is saying. But, our suggestion to government is that if they want dialogue to succeed, government should talk to Boko Haram to contact any country of their choice who has diplomatic relations with Nigeria to play some mediatory role between them and government, like Saudi Arabia or any country.
“Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Mali among others are still battling with terrorism despite security, but these countries have or are trying to adopt dialogue because the use of force will never end terrorism based on what we saw in other countries.
“But we pray for Mr. President to succeed; if Jonathan ends Boko Haram’s menace with the use of force, he will be the first president and the whole world will recommend him for Nobel Peace Award. Let’s pray for him and the security to succeed.”
Meanwhile, the President, Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, CRCN, Mallam Shehu Sani, yesterday picked holes in the statement by President Jonathan that the Boko Haram insurgency would soon be over.
He expressed the fear that the President’s submission could lead to renewed attacks by the sect.
Sani, who led former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the Boko Haram enclave in Maiduguri in September 2011 to broker peace, explained that the Federal Government frustrated the right person that would have ended the insurgency through dialogue.
In a telephone interview with National Mirror in Kaduna, Sani noted that the President’s claims was to convince Nigerians that terrorism was under control in order to boost his 2015 presidential ambition.
Sani, therefore, regretted that Boko Haram had become a cash machine by people in government who wanted the insurgency to continue.
He also described President Jonathan’s statement as provocative which may place people in danger for possible sect’s attacks, adding that such a declaration was not new to Nigerians.
The CRCN boss said: “What President Goodluck Jonathan is saying is simply provocative because if you conquered terrorists we should see it on the ground. Well, in my own candid opinion, the statement credited to President Jonathan and security chiefs over their ability to curtail the activities of the sect is not true, it will raise hope but it is simply going to be false hope, because such kind of statements have been made in the past and what we have always seen is the renewal of such violence.
“Bombings, killings, attacks continue. If actually there is victory we should see it on ground not necessary by making statements from Abuja. The violence is going on, and it is irresponsible for our leaders to claim victory where they have not.
“The President is trying to prove a point to justify his 2015 ambition, but technically I don’t see the reality of success over this insurgency. I see this statement as provocative and to put more people in danger.”
Sani added that the Boko Haram leaders and the Federal Government had not begun any dialogue, stressing that some people were just using it to make money.
“In the first instance, there was no dialogue, there are some people who are making money from Boko Haram insurgency. Boko Haram has become a cash machine. There are people who are making money on people’s blood. Security contractors, defense entrepreneurs, dialogue industries are springing up now. Government entrepreneurs, contractors are cashing on it.
“One of the major obstacles to ending this insurgency through dialogue is because some people are benefiting from it, the arms importers, contractors of all kinds of gadgets and foreign defense entrepreneurs are benefiting from the insurgency, using millions of dollars in the name of dialogue.
“To me, I don’t see any possibility of ending this insurgency by the way government is handling it.”