Senator Shehu Sani
Speaking in Akure on Wednesday as a discussant at a symposium held
as part of the 40th Anniversary of Ondo State and the 7th anniversary of
the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration, Senator Shehu Sani, has assured
Nigerians that the missing Chibok school girls will be found.
The senator representing Kaduna Central senatorial district,
advised that the Federal Government must negotiate with some persons to 'extract' the girls from their current danger.
He also said that current events in the country had revealed that
the reign of bloodshed by Boko Haram in the last seven years was
sustained by the greed of a few who profited from the situation.
"Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the
insurgency is, when will the Chibok girls be freed. Someone said the
Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be
free and they are alive."
It can be recalled that in the past, Senator Sani was named as a
contact person through which the Nigerian government sought to negotiate
with Boko Haram. A civil society leader at the time, Mr. Sani later
accused the former Goodluck Jonathan government of not showing
sufficient commitment to the proposed talks.
Speaking in Akure, the lawmaker noted that besides the use of
force, the government must explore other ways of rescuing the girls.
"There are two ways to get them: the first is to use force to
free them and before you apply force, you have to know where they are.
You also have to weigh the consequences of raiding the camp with such
number of persons, because the insurgents have nothing to lose.
"The second option is to explore ways of extracting them out
through negotiation and negotiation is still possible. There are a few
people, not a panel of eminent Nigerians or a panel, there are a few
people who the government needs to reach out to," he said.
He also explained that the girls could be rescued in the first instance, because the parties could not make concession.
"They said they were going to free the girls on the condition
we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and
the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done
a lot of harm," he recalled.
The senator also said that Boko Haram is a terrorist group with a leadership and a theocratic agenda.
"For those who have been following events in the last six to
seven years, we have seen how some of us from the north, particularly
myself, I tried to find an alternative means of addressing the problem
of the insurgency.
"I took the risk of reaching out to the insurgents and
initiating a process of dialogue, about three to four times and it was
sabotaged by those who were benefitting from the bloodshed and I think
the unfolding events in the country clearly shows to all Nigerians that
there were people who see that seven years of bloodshed, of mass murder,
of genocide as an opportunity for them to amass wealth.
"It is not possible to say that an insurgent group or people
not more than two to three thousand have proved so difficult for a
nation of 175 million people to crush. A nation like ours with a
reputable armed forces and have performed creditably well in peace
keeping missions in Liberia and sierra Leone and Congo and other
countries of the world.
"It was so clear that some see it as an opportunity, like the
Chinese saying, some people see crisis as a struggle, others see it as
an opportunity. That is why it dragged on for so long, but I hope with
the present administration, at least progress has been made in terms of
degrading the capacity and ability of Boko Haram to take up
territories."
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