Reasons why we can’t negotiate with Boko Haram now —Buhari

The absence of a credible leadership in the terror sect, Boko Haram, is putting the federal government off negotiating with the group on the release of the Chibok school girls, President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday in New Delhi, India.

President Buhari, who was in India for the just concluded Third India-Africa Forum Summit, said that while his administration is keen on securing the release of the girls, it does not know any credible leadership of the sect it can talk to.

“We want to get them back safe to parents. But we are not sure of a credible leadership that is prepared to talk yet about Chibok girls,” he told the New Delhi Television (NDTV) on the sideline of the summit.

Over 250 of the girls are still in Boko Haram’s captivity since their abduction from the Government Girls Secondary School in April last year.

The federal government recently expressed a willingness to have negotiations with the Boko Haram, in spite of the claim that it is militarily on the back foot.



President Buhari said he is “prepared to discuss anything” with the group to rescue the girls, because “we want them back safe. If they are desperate, if they can blow people up in churches and mosques, they can even kill them.”

He also told NDTV that the terrorists are on the retreat.

“They are on the retreat. If you go to the front, you will find out that they no longer occupy the areas in the North East they once did,” he said.

But he explained that the war in Libya is pushing Islamic State fighters into Nigeria, filling the ranks of Boko Haram.

“A lot of trained people have returned to their bases in Nigeria and are finding their way back to strengthen Boko Haram,” he said.

In March this year, Boko Haram officially became an affiliate of the Islamic State, who they had started to court in July 2014. Islamic State flags and chants have appeared in subsequent propaganda videos, an attempt, as President Buhari believes, at “psychological warfare to show that they are not alone, and have the participation of a more resourceful group.”