By John Amoda
CAN  negotiation be imposed? Are there interests that are non-negotiable? The carrot is inducement; the stick is punishment.

The insurgency cannot be brought to an end if the interests of either version of the Boko Haram are revolutionary because the aim of revolutionary insurgency is total defeat of the government, its demolition and the construction of another society, government and constitution.

Governor Babangida Aliyu takes a mid-course between Yaguda and Okupe.

“Governor of Niger State and chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum Babangida Aliyu said after the declaration of the amnesty initiative that governors of the affected states must now bring out the Boko Haram elements for dialogue.

On April 9 in Minna while commending the president for heeding the calls for amnesty for Boko Haram, Aliyu said, “I also call on the governor in the north to begin to unmask the ghosts among them so that we will be talking to human beings and not ghost” (ThisDay, The Sunday Newspaper, April 28, 2013). Amnesty in Aliyu’s view is a strategy to engage the governors to “unmask” the ghosts as a prelude to the starting of negotiations.

Vanguard Monday April 29, 2013 carries the response of Defence Headquarters that have come under intense international and national accusation of heavy handedness in its response to the Boko Haram attack on the JTF in Baga.

Kingsley Omonobi’s story is captioned “Baga Defence headquarters challenges Borno State Government; denies claim that 185 persons were killed.

Abuja- The Defence headquarters, yesterday accused politicians and officials of Borno State government of deliberately inflating the casualty figure in the shoot-out between the military and members of Boko Haram at Baga community in Borno State two weeks ago to discredit the military so that the troops will be withdrawn from the state. It was reported that about 185 residents of the community were killed by the Multi-National Task Force during the shoot out while 2000 homes were destroyed.

The Defence Headquarters said in a statement however, that the series of allegations were aimed at discrediting the military, with the aim to put pressure on government to order the withdrawn of troops from Borno, adding that no mass grave was found anywhere after two days of searching as alleged by the politicians.

The statement noted that after the operation to flush out the terrorists from Baga had been successfully carried out on April 16 and 17, “the situation in the town had been stabilised until the arrival of some politicians and government officials who addressed the community on Sunday April 21, making a series of allegations which end up raising fresh tension and campaign to discredit the military.

The politicians reiterated their call for withdrawal of soldiers from the state during their address.

The statement signed by Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information reads: ‘The defence Headquarters fact-finding team to Baga has returned to present its reports to the Chief of Defence Staff on the outcome of its three-day visit to Baga following the reports on last week encounter between the multinational Joint Task Force, (MNJTF) and Boko Haram Terrorists in the town of Baga General Edokpayi maintained that the operation was only targeted at stopping the Boko Haram terrorists who had established a pattern of burning buildings and property as a mode of operation in the area lately. He cited instances of how the terrorists employed the tactics of burning properties such as Duguri, Metele, and Kangarwa where they have operated”.

The military involved was the Multi National Joint Task Force consisting of troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad- that suggests that the Boko Haram in Borno was multi-national. ThisDay, The Sunday Newspaper drew attention to the issue of Foreign Connection in granting of amnesty.

“But the federal government faces a dilemma in its effort to contain the Boko Haram insurgency: the group’s connection with Al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organisations, and the ineffective policing of Nigeria’s far-flung border areas in the North-east and other parts of the country.

The extraordinary thing about Friday’s bloody clash at the remote Borno Village of Baga is that most of the news got out to the media only from Sunday, more than 24 hours after the violence began.

It clearly shows how difficult, it is to police the remote border villages where Boko Haram seems to find sanctuary. It also shows a possible involvement of foreign mercenaries.

There were reports that operation to dislodge Boko Haram from their alleged hideout in the area was a joint effort by Nigerian, Nigerien and Chadian troops. This underscores the fears among African countries about the danger and potency of cross-border terrorism”.

The Nigerian Minister for Foreign Affairs has been in the U.S State Department to answer questions on possible human rights violations by the MNJTF in the Baga operation.

The US may mean well but they not only show incomprehension of the nature of the insurgency, they also lack an understanding of the larger context of insecurity of societies in Africa and what make them susceptible to anarchy and terror politics.

President Jonathan has the Boko Haram Tiger by the tail and either way he may come out the loser unless  the President is encouraged  to address the larger problems of Sahelian Malian Insecurity as a process of getting the US to appreciate the fact that the security of societies in Africa procede their defence.

The present chaos in the northern analysis of the Boko Haram Threat is a pointer to the possible chaos of 2015 electoral discourse. The President’s 2015 strategy either as a contender or a sponsor entails his bringing to the fore the issue of order in society as the paramount security challenge.

There is therefore an urgent need  for a stakeholders Security Council level Conference today than when the insurgency began. We can learn from this statement of Bola Tinubu.

“Nigeria must be a prosperous, secure nation that helps weaker nations attain peace and stability. Instead, we are beset by woe on all sides. Boko Haram falls upon our people in the North. MEND in the Niger Delta falls upon us. Kidnapping and robbery encircled the nation as criminal misconduct”.

The disorder so well portrayed by Tinubu above cannot be the context for stable democratic governance now or in 2015. The President must show the world the way out of the present anarchy that he is doing his best to manage. This is the moment to operationalise the Transformation Agenda.