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.”
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