FOLLOWING President Goodluck Jonathan's declaration in Yobe State on Thursday that he would not grant amnesty to members of the Boko Haram group unless they show themselves physically for negotiations, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Dr Mathew Hassan Kukah and the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) have expressed the need for the government to try the amnesty option for the sect for the sake of the peace.
Speaking with The Guardian Friday, Kukah said: "The Boko Haram insurgency has made all of us victims as a nation and as a community and we must deal with the problem holistically and reject the imprisonment of sentiments and politics. We must pursue what can help us end it.
"I am a member of the Committee set up by the Northern Governors whose statement the Sultan is supporting. When you negotiate, you do not put limits immediately. If asking for amnesty is on the list of demands by the members of Boko Haram, I have no problem with that until they have come to the table.
"In principle, there is no guarantee that they will get the amnesty because it is the prerogative of the negotiator to lay down his own conditions. Those conditions will be debated and finally, we will make recommendations to the authorities that will then decide. When you enter a plea, the judge's response will be based on the evidence before him and this evidence has to be weighed. So, I cannot by reflex say that we should reject amnesty because we have not seen the other conditions and even the President knows that he cannot declare amnesty just by fiat.
"It will take further negotiations laying down of conditions and so on. Even the members themselves who stepped forward said that those of them who are guilty of any crimes should be tried. How can you have a problem with that? The door has just opened and we have not even reached the sitting room not to talk of sitting down. So I do not know how anyone can reject what has not been clearly offered. We should at least even confirm if these people are who they say they are and so on. This turn may lead us to the highway, or it may lead to a cul-de-sac, but we cannot reject it outright, " Kukah said.
On the claim that there is no need for amnesty for them because they are faceless, he said: "What do you mean faceless? Can faceless people be on the Internet and the media? It is a different thing if we have no capacity to find them, but Boko Haram has never been faceless. Perhaps we can say we have been looking in the wrong place. The world believed that Osama Bin Laden was faceless. Today, where is he? Read the book on the killing of Osama titled, No Easy Day and you will see that where there is a will, there is a way. In Nigeria, there is only a shortage of capacity, political will and competence on our part. As you can see, we prefer to steal incredible sums of money, give out and embark on self-serving projects of dubious relevance.
Reacting to the development, MURIC, in a statement issued yesterday by its Director, Prof. Ishiaq Akinola said that Sultan Abubakar's call for amnesty for the sect members was borne out of patriotism, concern and an attempt to help government resolve the security challenge and that it was unfortunate, unfair and unjust for the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to have reacted the way it did.
"CAN's claim that only Christians and churches have been the targets and victims of attacks in the North is false, baseless and unfounded. We affirm that more Muslims have fallen victims than Christians in the on-going Boko Haram imbroglio. Hundreds of Islamic scholars have been reported killed by Boko Haram. This insurrection is therefore not about religion. This is where CAN missed the point," the group said.
"The same group is known to have attacked Muslim traditional rulers of Northern extraction. For instance, about three palace guards lost their lives while defending the Emir of Kano during an attack on his person. Or is the Emir of Kano a Christian?," Akinola said.
The Guardian