Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday gave a rare commendation to the Federal
Government for setting up a committee on the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect.
The Federal Government on April 4, said that a committee would be set up to
look into the possibility of granting amnesty to members of Boko Haram, who had
been waging a bloody campaign against the country in recent years.
Buhari gave the commendation while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta.
The former head of state who was in Ogun to commiserate with Mrs Hannah Awolowo
on the death of her son, Oluwole Awolowo, described the amnesty gesture for
Boko Haram as a welcome development.
“It is good that the Federal Government has set up a committee on amnesty. I
have not seen the terms of reference but it is a good step in the right
direction.”
He described the decision as a bold step capable of restoring peace to troubled
areas of the country, adding, “whatever that will bring peace to us as a
people, we should do”.
Buhari who noted that there had been precedence on the issue of amnesty,
recalled that the former Niger Delta militant group once benefitted from a
similar gesture.
“This is not the first time amnesty will be granted to a violent group. You
remember it was granted to the militant group in the Niger Delta during the
time of late President Musa Yar’adua.”
Buhari, a former presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) in the 2011 general elections, was accompanied by Mr Tunde Bakare, his
running mate during the elections.
The CPC chieftain, who had earlier addressed party supporters, said he was in
the state to condole with the Awolowo’s over the death of Oluwole.
He said that he would also go to Ekiti, to commiserate with the government over
the death of Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, the Deputy Governor of the state who died
on April 6.
The United States of America on Wednesday said it backed the Federal
Government’s plan to grant amnesty to members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko
Haram.
Political Counsellor at the Embassy of the USA, Gregory Lawless, said in Abuja
that the American government would support amnesty for Boko Haram if it was the
solution to ending violence in the north and other parts of the country.
positive development. We will work with Nigerian government as it develops its
own policy approach as to counter violent extremism,” Lawless said in a
response to a question about the US position on the amnesty the Nigerian government
was planning to grant the Islamic sect at a teleconference on US-Nigerian
Binational Commission.
concerns in Nigeria would be addressed through our regional security
cooperation working group as part of the Bi-National Commission.
a holistic approach to address the unmet grievances of the population,
especially in the north.
mechanism, we think by broadening the scope of response to violent extremism,
we believe that we will be addressing some of those issues in a more
fundamental way.”
said the US had not changed its condemnation of the state pardon granted to
former Bayelsa Governor, Dipreye Alamieyeseigha, by President Goodluck
Jonathan.
not changed,” he said.
the U.S. Department of State, Victoria Nuland, at a daily press briefing in
Washington had said, “We see this as a setback for the fight against
corruption, and also for our ability to play the strong role we’ve played in
supporting rule of law and legal institution-building in Nigeria, which is very
important for the future of the country obviously.
to Nigerians that this puts a question mark on the kind of work that we’ve been
trying to do with them.
taken the kinds of steps that you’re suggesting Matt (the reporter who asked
the question), but we’re continuing to look at what’s appropriate.”
that whatever the disappointment was, the US had since moved on with its
relationship with Nigeria.
mature relationship. So we can recognise our differences and opinions on
issues. We are moving on; we have a lot of things to do,” he said.
successes achieved so far by the bi-national commission, Lawless said the
commission had successfully integrated civil society into the electoral process
prior to the 2011 elections.
commission had been able to sustain an elevated dialogue with energy sector
officials on policy reforms to increase investment.
countries had also agreed to explore a partnership with the Nigerian Army to
build its civil affairs capacity and to build trust between Nigeria’s citizens
and the military.
Binational Commission is a high-level forum for advancing issues of mutual
concern.
April 2010 by the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, and former Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, the Commission’s five
working groups meet regularly to focus and deepen engagement on issues
concerning governance, energy, security, agriculture, and the Niger Delta.
include, Good Governance; Transparency and Integrity;
Cooperation; Energy and Investment; Food Security and Agriculture, as well as
the Niger Delta.
established benchmarks for transparent and inclusive elections, including
registering voters, appointing electoral commission leaders, and allocating
independent election funding.
security cooperation, Lawless said, “We provided lessons learned from our
post-September 11 experiences in an effort to strengthen Nigeria’s community
engagement and strategic communications efforts. We offered to help Nigeria
develop an intelligence fusion centre to improve their intelligence, analysis,
and dissemination efforts, although Nigerian officials are still deciding their
scope and mission requirements for such a centre.”
the Energy and Investment working group has focused primarily on reform of
Nigeria’s power and hydrocarbon sectors.
“We have been heartened by Nigeria’s ongoing progress on comprehensive power
reform incentives and private investment in infrastructure to address massive
power shortages.
is providing policy support to strengthen Nigeria’s domestic agricultural
policies. The United States supports efforts to expand agricultural lending and
otherwise improve private agriculture sector growth.”
agreed to collaborate further to build on Nigeria’s amnesty programme by
advancing economic development and environmental protection of the Delta. We
also committed to partner with Nigeria to enhance regional maritime security
and to reduce the inflow of small arms and light weapons”.