Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Oluseyi Petinrin, has pointed out that the Armed Forces have no competence to dialogue with the Boko Haram sect.
Speaking in Maiduguri, Borno State, which is the principal enclave of Boko Haram, he said that the armed forces are trained for purposes related to absolute protection of Nigeria’s sovereignty and territory.
“It is the federal government who has people who can talk, who can sit at the table and deliberate, we are not trained for that,” Air Chief Marshall Petinrin said. “Federal government is federal government; they own everybody and everything, if they decide to dialogue they can dialogue, but what I am saying is that as far as the security forces are concerned, ours is to ensure there is peace, nobody has told us to dialogue with anybody and we work based on order. We are not trained to conduct dialogue as soldiers.”
He further noted the complexities of terrorism, saying of terrorism and issues of criminality, “Once people get it introduced to the society, the society continues to be on the guard, it is like armed robbery, after the civil war, armed robbery started in the country and till now it is still with us.
Nevertheless, he warned the Boko Haram sect that they cannot triumph in their insurgency, and urged them to be better citizens and demand change by forming their own political party.
He urged Nigerians to be vigilant and for everyone to play his part in the quest for stability.
“What is now required is that everyone should be aware of their environment and continue to monitor their surrounding so that no one comes to destabilize their environment, it is a continuous thing and all of us should be involved in it,” he said.
Air Chief Marshall’s statement seems to be aimed at the Nigerian government, which seems confused about whether to have dialogue with Boko Haram, or not, or how it should do it. Top government officials are studiously avoiding Borno State for fear of being assaulted, and it is a possibility that the military, as part of the Joint Task Force, are being asked to arrange or commence talks with the militants.
In recent times, there have been indications that government officials are being routinely duped by contractors and 419-ers who have found in the security crisis an avenue for duping the government of funds by claiming to be capable of setting up meetings with Boko Haram.
Following a categorical denial by Boko Haram that it is in talks with the government, the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, issued a press statement on August 25 in which the government backed off its claims.
First, Dr. Abati said that the Boko Haram denial could not be believed because it had come only from one of its “factions.”
And then he admitted there was no dialogue in the normal sense.
"When government says it is already talking to Boko Haram, the form of that dialogue must be properly understood,” he said. “I think a lot of people are under the impression that the dialogue involves a situation whereby government officials are sitting on one side, Boko Haram persons are sitting on the other side in an air-conditioned room and there are negotiations across the table.”
With today’s statement by the Chief of Defence Staff, the process seems to have come full circle. Not only is the government not talking to the militants, the military seems to be saying that if the government wants to do so, it must do so itself and not expect soldiers who are trained only to shoot to do its talking and negotiating.
