By Charles Pemu 
ABUJA—Former President Goodluck Jonathan made a startling revelation on Friday, disclosing that when his administration sought peace talks with Boko Haram insurgents, the terrorist group specifically nominated Muhammadu Buhari, who would later become president, as their preferred representative.
Jonathan made the disclosure at the public presentation of the book Scars, authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), in Abuja.
The former president recounted that his government had established multiple committees to explore dialogue with the sect. He noted that Buhari’s nomination by the insurgents led him to believe that the crisis would be swiftly resolved once Buhari assumed the presidency.
“One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government,” Jonathan stated.
“So I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari to represent them and have a discussion with the government committee, then when Buhari took over, it could have been an easy way to negotiate with them and they would have handed over their guns. But it was still there till today.”
Insurgency ‘More Complex’ Than Portrayed
Jonathan suggested that the persistence of the insurgency, despite Buhari’s military background and his nomination by the group, indicates that the crisis is far “more complex than it is often presented.”
He noted his own five-year tenure fighting the insurgency, which began when he was Vice President in 2009.
“I thought that after I left, within a reasonable time, General Buhari would wipe them out. But even today, Boko Haram is still there,” he asserted.
Jonathan dismissed the idea that the crisis was driven solely by poverty, noting that his administration’s various strategies—including those addressing hunger—did not succeed. He urged current and former military officers involved in the saga to document their experiences to provide a clearer picture of the group’s true motives.