Govt should negotiate with Boko Haram — Mike Ozekhome

Human rights activist, Chief Mike
Ozekhome, SAN, has called on the Federal
Government to immediately negotiate with the Boko
Haram Islamist sect to bring back the abducted
school girls from Chibok, Borno State.
But the Federal Government in a surprised move on
Saturday, said it did not offer amnesty to Boko
Haram members.
In a statement made available to Vanguard,
Ozekhome, who is also a delegate to the ongoing
National Conference in Abuja, said Section 14 of the
1999 Constitution mandated the Federal
Government to ensure the security and welfare of
the citizenry.

He said: “The controversy over whether or not the
Federal Government should negotiate with Boko
Haram with a view to releasing the abducted Chibok
Secondary School girls, is nauseating and
demeaning of our humanity, to say the least.
“Let it be made clear that the security and welfare
of Nigerians are the primary purpose of government
(Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution).
”It is unthinkable that some people would want the
lives of these innocent future leaders of Nigeria to
be wasted on the altar of government grand-
standing and engagement niceties. There are times
when a government stoops to conquer.

Recalling that former US President, Mr. J.F.
Kennedy, once promulgated the concept of
negotiation, Ozekhome said Nigeria could not
continue to experience the orgy of bloodletting
which had claimed over 12, 000 lives amid wanton
destruction of schools, churches and mosques.

”It was J.F. Kennedy, former American President,
who once declared that we should never fail to
negotiate, just as we should never negotiate out of
fear. Negotiating with Boko Haram will not amount
to negotiating out of fear.

“It is simply an irritating sacrifice to be made to
justify the sanctity of the lives of these young,
innocent souls. I dare say that the Federal
Government should negotiate even with Satan, if
that would bring back our girls. Even Satan would be
humbled and diminished by such an unprecedented
strategy.

”Recall that part of the main brief of the Turaki
Committee was to negotiate with the Boko Haram
group, an offer it had imperiously rejected. Now that
the same Boko Haram has thrown up the “Olive
branch,” for that is what it clearly is, the Federal
Government should seize it, and make gains out of
it.

”It affords a golden opportunity, not only to
negotiate the release of the Chibok girls, but to
holistically negotiate amnesty and halting of the
horrific insurgency and bloodletting that have
claimed over 12, 000 lives and wanton destruction
of houses, Schools, Churches, Mosques, public
buildings, bus stops, etc.

”The Federal Government should, for once, think of
the trepidation, unease, cries, tension, suspense,
psychological trauma and mental torture, that the
abduction of these children is causing their parents,
teachers, siblings, friends and loved ones.”