CONFUSION!! North Kicks Against Ban Of Boko Haram

The North on Wednesday disagreed with the National Assembly on the proscription of two Islamic miltant groups – Boko Haram and Ansaru – by President Goodluck Jonathan.

While the North through its two prominent groups, the Arewa Consultative Forum and the Northern Elders Forum, faulted the ban, the National Assembly insisted that it's a welcome development...

To the ACF and the NEF, the Jonathan administration has through the ban thrown a spanner in the works in its efforts to end bloodletting in the North through amnesty for Boko Haram and Ansaru members. They said they were waiting to see how the Federal Government would address the crisis in the North.

In an interview with Punch in Kaduna, the ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, argued that with the ban, negotiations with Boko Haram would be difficult.

He asked, “Now that they (government) have proscribed the sect, can they now negotiate with a non-existing group?

“Before, the government told us that it was using a stick and carrot approach; that is, negotiation and state of emergency; now that they have proscribed it (Boko Haram), how will the negotiation work?

“It is the government that told us that a stick and carrot approach will work together. Now that they have gone to proscribe Boko Haram, let us see how they will apply the stick and carrot. We pray that they succeed.”

Sani wondered if the government would negotiate with members of the sect individually instead of meeting the group.

He added, “The government said they needed the emergency in order to reclaim the seized town taken over by Boko Haram. This made Nigerians, including us (ACF) to give them the go-ahead. We supported the state of emergency to reclaim seized part of the country.

“But now that they have proscribed the sect, we don’t know how they will apply the carrot. Now, how can you negotiate with an illegal entity? The group has just been proscribed. They have announced it. They are applying the stick now but we don’t know how they will apply the carrot.”

His counterpart in the NEF, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said the proscription contradicted government’s efforts to negotiate with the sect. Abdullahi said, “But in this case, people say they don’t know what this Boko Haram is, they don’t know the members and they are trying to get the members to come out for dialogue .

“If you are looking for dialogue, you have to expect that there will be people who will come out under certain respectable conditions.

“Two things have happened simultaneously - the declaration of a state of emergency which connotes the declaration of martial law. You cannot expect somebody to come and meet soldiers under emergency conditions and now you have the proscription.”

Also, the Northern Youth Consultative Forum, NYCF, National President, Alhaji Aminu Mohammed, said “We are all intelligent. You cannot create many things at the same time: Boko Haram, amnesty committee, fighting insurgents and proscribing the group.

“How do we trust the government? Is it not the government that is messing things up? Let them tell us who Boko Haram is? Where are they?”