Observers note that the decision by the Federal Government to open discussions with genuine Boko Haram leaders in custody of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls is cheering.
According to them, a recent video allegedly released by the Abubakar Shekau’s faction of the Boko Haram sect may give an insight into how to redeem the girls who have been in captivity since 2014.
The video shows some of the Chibok girls in captivity in which one of the abducted girls, identified as Maida Yakubu, pleads with the parents of the abducted girls to intervene so that she and others can be freed.
“We are not happy living here. I am begging our parents to meet the government to release the held Boko Haram members so that we can be released,’’ she was presented as saying in Hausa.
In an apparent reaction to the video, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Segun Adeyemi, said the Federal Government would do all it could to ensure the release of the girls.
This assurance, nonetheless, he stressed the need to be extremely careful because the situation had been compounded by the split in the leadership of Boko Haram.
Mohammed was quoted in the statement as saying that government was guided by the need to ensure the safety of the girls.
“Government is conscious of the fact that this is not the first time it has been contacted over the issue; therefore, it wants to be sure that those the Federal Government are in touch with are really who they claim to be,’’ the minister said.
The minister expressed the hope that the new development would mark the beginning of the end of the nightmare to which the girls, their families and indeed all Nigerians had been going through since the abduction of the girls.
However, observers recall that Nigeria will not be the first to engage insurgent groups in dialogue.
According to them, the Israeli government was sometimes compelled to employ dialogue to resolve some of its intractable crises with the Palestinian militants.
They note that in May 1985, the Israeli government negotiated the release of 1,150 Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC).
The exchange is called the “Jibril Deal’’ in recognition of the input of the leader of the PFLP-GC, Ahmad Jibril, in the prisoner-swap arrangement.
For the benefit of hindsight, Israel and Hizballah also carried out three prisoner-exchanges in 1996, one of which saw the release of the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Joseph Fink and Rahamim Alsheich, in exchange for the remains of 123 Lebanese soldiers.
Hizballah had a cause to release 25 members of the South Lebanon Army, an army loyal to Israel, in exchange for 25 Lebanese prisoners from the Khima Prison in south Lebanon.
Besides, Hizballah, in June 1998, returned the remains of Sergeant First Class Itamar Ilya in exchange for the remains of 40 Hizballah soldiers.
In January 2004, the Israeli government released 436 prisoners, including 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, two Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, one Libyan and a German.
Israel also returned the remains of 59 Lebanese soldiers, in exchange for the remains of three Israeli soldiers and Elhanan Tennenbaum, who Hizballah claimed was an Israeli intelligence officer.
Under the same deal, Israel released Sheikh Abdel Kareem Obaid, who was kidnapped from the Lebanese territory in 1989, and Sheikh Mustafa Dirani, who was abducted in 1994, in exchange for three Israeli soldiers and an intelligence officer.
Records also show that in 1983, six Israeli soldiers, who were held by the Palestine Liberation Organisation for more than 14 months, were exchanged for 4,500 Palestinian prisoners.
This, perhaps, reinforces the decision of U.S. President Barak Obama to negotiate with the outlawed Taliban group for the release of a U.S. soldier who was held in Afghanistan.
Under the deal, Bowe Bergdahl, a sergeant in the U.S. army, was recently released in exchange for five high-profile Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo.
Bergdahl, 28, had been in the Taliban captivity since June 30, 2009.
The soldier’s freedom came as part of a prisoner-swap deal between the U.S. government and the Taliban, brokered by the government of Qatar.
Bergdahl was recently handed over to the U.S. troops by the Taliban in an area of eastern Afghanistan, adjacent to Pakistan’s border.
Under the prisoner-exchange agreement, the Taliban prisoners, who have been in captivity of the U.S. since 2001, were handed over to the Qatari authorities.
They are Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Abdul Haq Wasiq.
Fazl was Taliban’s Deputy Defence Minister, while Noori was the governor of Balkh province under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The Taliban said in a statement that their release brought “great joy’’.
Obama, who justified the prisoner-swap arrangement, thanked Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for his commitment to the mediation between the U.S. and the Taliban.
“The American people are pleased that we will be able to welcome home Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“On behalf of the American people, I was honoured to call his parents to express our joy that they can expect his safe return, mindful of their courage and sacrifice throughout this ordeal.
“For his assistance in helping to secure our soldier’s return, I extend my deepest appreciation to the Emir of Qatar,’’ Obama said in a statement.
Echoing similar viewpoints, Chief Mike Ozekhome, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a human rights lawyer, believes that tangible efforts should be made to negotiate with the Boko Haram insurgents.
Ozekhome explained that the security and welfare of Nigerians were the primary responsibility of the government as enshrined in Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution.
“Negotiation affords a golden opportunity, not only to negotiate the release of the Chibok girls, but also to holistically negotiate amnesty and halt the horrific insurgency and bloodletting which have claimed more than 12,000 lives,’’ he said.
Ozekhome, however, stressed that negotiating with Boko Haram would not amount to negotiating out of fear, adding that such negotiation was simply an “irritating sacrifice’’ made to preserve innocent souls.
In his view, Mr Abdullahi No-Sweat, one of Nigeria’s most adventurous journalists, commended government’s readiness to discuss with the genuine leadership of the insurgents still in custody of the kidnapped girls.
The 78-year-old journalist who had spent a greater part of his productive years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kashmir and Algeria, among others, said that there was no country that succeeded in fighting armed struggles through the use of force alone.
This view notwithstanding, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin, insisted that the military would continue with the onslaught against the Boko Haram insurgents in the north-eastern part of the country.
Speaking with State House correspondents after a recent security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Olonisakin said the military had decided to continue with its operations.
He observed that any decision as to whether or not to consider a swap arrangement in exchange for the abducted Chibok girls was political and should be left for politicians.
He said the military was still “analysing’’ the video released by Boko Haram and would make appropriate comments at the right time.
“The military’s decision is that we are going ahead with our operations. The operation is being conducted appropriately. The meeting was about how we handle crisis, all forms of crisis, be it flood or terrorism.
He used the opportunity to deny the claim that Ahmed Bolori, one of the persons declared wanted by the army, was asked to return home after turning himself in at the army headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno state capital.
Swap arrangement or not, analysts plead with the Federal Government to come up with more pragmatic methods of redeeming the abducted girls.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria
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