Former President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed that at the height of Boko Haram’s insurgency, the group nominated his successor, Muhammadu Buhari, to represent them in peace negotiations with the Federal Government.
Jonathan made the revelation on Friday during the public presentation of Scars, a memoir by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), in Abuja.
According to him, his administration established multiple committees to explore dialogue with the militant group. In one of such engagements, the insurgents insisted that Buhari, then a prominent opposition leader, should be their representative in discussions with government officials.
Jonathan said this development initially led him to believe that Buhari, upon becoming president in 2015, would have had an easier path to persuade the sect to lay down their arms. However, he noted that the insurgency has endured, underscoring its complexity.
“One of the committees we set up then was informed that Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team in negotiations with government,” Jonathan recalled. “So I thought that if they had that level of confidence in him, it would be easier for him, upon assuming office, to bring them to the table. But the conflict still persists to this day.
Reflecting on the protracted security challenge, Jonathan emphasized that the Boko Haram crisis is deeper than is often portrayed in public discourse. He recounted his own experience, saying the insurgency began in 2009 when he was vice president, and escalated throughout his five-year presidency.
“I had assumed that General Buhari, with the mandate he received, would be able to put an end to it quickly. But Boko Haram remains a reality today. The situation is far more complicated than a single narrative suggests,” he said.
Jonathan urged a rethinking of Nigeria’s counterinsurgency strategy, stressing that military accounts and documentation of the conflict are vital to understanding the sect’s true ideology and long-term impact.
“I commend General Irabor for documenting his experiences. Such records help us piece together the bigger picture. I also encourage other officers who fought in the insurgency to share their accounts, so that Nigerians may fully grasp what Boko Haram truly represents,” he added.
