Jonathan, Buhari’s aide clash over Boko Haram negotiations claim

Former President Goodluck Jonathan and a spokesman of late President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, have clashed over claims that Boko Haram once nominated Buhari as a negotiator with the federal government.

Speaking on Friday at the public presentation of Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, a book by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (rtd.), Jonathan reflected on the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction in 2014, describing it as “a permanent scar” on his administration.

“One of the major scars on my government – and it will remain on my face, as Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it – is the issue of the Chibok girls. It is a scar I will die with,” Jonathan said.

He noted that during peace initiatives launched under his government, Boko Haram leaders proposed Buhari as their preferred mediator. Jonathan said this raised his hopes that Buhari, upon becoming president, would be able to persuade the insurgents to surrender.

“One of the committees we set up then, Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with government. So I was feeling that 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 is still there till today,” he said.

The former president stressed that Buhari’s inability to end the insurgency highlighted the complexity of the crisis. He urged the current administration to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach, arguing that Boko Haram’s access to sophisticated weapons pointed to foreign involvement beyond domestic grievances.

“Sometimes they even have more ammunition than our soldiers. Where are these guns coming from? That shows external hands are involved,” Jonathan said.

However, Garba Shehu, Buhari’s former spokesman, dismissed Jonathan’s account as false.

In a statement on Saturday, Shehu said neither Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, nor its former leader, Abubakar Shekau, ever nominated Buhari for such a role. Instead, he said, the group consistently viewed Buhari as an enemy.

“Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition. In 2014, Buhari narrowly escaped a Boko Haram bomb attack in Kaduna,” Shehu stated.

He recalled that when reports emerged in 2012 suggesting Buhari’s nomination, the late president denied any knowledge of it through his party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). The then national secretary of the CPC, Buba Galadima, publicly clarified that Buhari was never contacted by the sect and described the reports as “speculation.”

Shehu further accused Jonathan of attempting to rewrite history for political purposes ahead of 2027. “If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that Mr. Jonathan, you are making a false start,” he said.

The former aide also recalled Jonathan’s admission during his presidency that Boko Haram had infiltrated his own government, arguing that such revelations undermined his handling of the insurgency.

The exchange underscores how Boko Haram’s origins and evolution remain deeply contentious, with both Jonathan and Buhari’s administrations criticised for failing to end the group’s violence, which continues more than a decade after it began.