“So far, no dialogue is going on with the government and Boko Haram,” President Goodluck Jonathan said in the latest edition of the State House-organized presidential media chat in Abuja on Sunday, appearing to contradict the position of his chief media adviser, Dr. Reuben Abati, who addressed the topic as recent as November 2.
According to a previous statement released by Dr. Abati on August 12 this year, government had initiated contact and discourse with the violent religious sect that has been responsible for up to 2,000 deaths in the last 3 years of its activities, especially in the group’s northern stronghold of Borno State and nearby areas.
“The form of the dialogue is that backroom channels are being used to reach across with the sole objective of understanding what exactly the grievances of these persons are,” read the press release by Abati, explaining that government’s mindset was that asks: “what exactly can be done to resolve the crisis, in the overall best interest of ensuring peace and stability in Nigeria and the security of lives and property?”
The president’s flat-out denial of any negotiations ongoing between his government and the murderous group naturally caught the attention of observers on Sunday.
“It is unusual, if not disturbing, for such communication divergence to exist between the chief executive and his chief media official,” said a Kansas-based Nigerian who said he monitored the two-hour media chat far away from his home country.
It is yet to be seen if this contradiction will result in as much hullabaloo as was seen in the case of the last media chat by the president in June, where among other things he had said he did not “give a damn” about the criticisms directed at him over the issue of his alleged refusal to declare his assets.
Abati also confirmed that government was willing to get into negotiations with Boko Haram if the group was serious about its stated ceasefire.
“I have seen the story in which the Boko Haram is reportedly declaring a ceasefire and the opening of dialogue,” Dr. Abati said in another statement on November 2, adding that the Jonathan Administration will be willing to enter into negotiations with the outlawed group if “the proposed ceasefire is intended to achieve are the objectives of peace and security.”
The August statement by Abati naturally generated mixed, if strong, reaction from the public. But the latter statement that he put out prompted a prominent Nigerian, Professor Wole Soyinka, a respected Nobel laureate for literature, who said any such thing would amount to appeasing terror.
“Don’t talk to mass murderers, don’t talk to people who have made the killing of people their philosophy,” Mr. Soyinka said at the venue of an international conference in Lagos, on November 9.
Mimicking what he called the tone of the government, Soyinka said “Please come talk to us. Please we don’t know what you want”, before asking “what kind of language is that? It is the language of abysmal appeasement!” the Nobel laureate said.
Meanwhile, the president exuded an air of confident optimism on his performance in office, and of Nigeria’s future, on Sunday, responding to other questions from the group of journalists on set, alongside taking phone-in and online questions via Twitter.
Mr. Jonathan said that Nigerians will have a better appreciation of his performance in office towards 2015, the year when his four-year term of office will expire. He also said his administration has done more than any Nigerian government in the area of combating corruption in instituting a regime of accountability in governance.
The president acknowledged the level of cynicism on the Nigerian Street, saying it is difficult for his government’s work to percolate in such an environment.
“People blame everything on corruption. Even the person that had a road accident will attribute is accident to corruption.”
“I believe that the effort this government has put in, in terms of fighting corruption, I don’t think any other person (administration) has done that before,” the president said. “The perception may be different from reality. One is not saying there is no corruption. Corruption is there. But, we will continue to fight corruption.”
Jonathan also denied the charge that his government planned to take another stab at subsidy removal in the new year, saying that government would not have made provision for subsidies in the 2013 budget.
“I was probably misquoted over what I said recently in an answer to a question by a group of students,” he said, adding that “If we wanted to remove subsidy in January, we could not have made provision for subsidy in the 2013 budget from January to December.”
Other topics addressed by the president include the intractable condition of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and the issue of the Halliburton bribery affair.
He said that his government is currently reviewing the contract issued to BiCourtney, the contractor in charge of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Jonathan also acknowledged his hands were tied on the Halliburton case, as it occurred before he assumed office as president of Nigeria.