Boko Haram Ceasefire FG’s Plans for Chibok Girls, North-East.

Boko Haram Ceasefire

FG’s Plans for Chibok Girls, North-East.

 

In Chibok, the beleaguered town in Bornu state, that has become the poster town for Boko Haram unleashed anguish, there was a spontaneous explosion of joy and rejoicing, celebration even, late afternoon last Friday. And it was all thanks to a radio announcement that the Federal Government had reached a ceasefire agreement with their torturers-in-chief; Boko Haram insurgents.

The long faces that most people usually wore there surrendered to smiles. People poured into the streets and dancing and rejoicing took over. As Mr. Enoch Mark related the joy of that magical moment, "Chibok was thrown into a joyous mood with people prancing and jumping with happiness when the news was aired on the radio".

 Chibok, a town that has been pushed into the world terrorism map, gained world-wide attention and name recognition when Boko Haram terrorists gained entrance into the Girls Secondary School there and kidnapped some 200 girls who were in the process of finishing their West African School Certificate examinations. That was in April this year. That dastardly act became the supreme example of Boko Haram’s  savage cruelty and placed an albatross on the corporate neck of the Nigerian nation state.   

Mr. Enoch Mark was part of that great street party Friday last week. He is not only from the town where the girls were snatched; the kidnapped school girls include his daughter and his two nieces.

Another Chibok man, Mr. Ayuba Chibok, gushed: "This is what we have been itching to hear for the past six months," said Chibok, whose niece is among those seized. "My prayer is that the two sides will honour the agreement."

Ayuba Chibok is not alone either in his stated expectations in the past six months or in his prayers that the ceasefire agreement should be fully respected and scrupulously adhered to. He actually captured the mood of the entire Nigeria since news of the brokered peace deal broke.

Such prayers became necessary since the voice and face of Boko Haram, the man who claims to be the sect’s leader, had yet to comment on the deal by the weekend. This has made many Chibok residents and other Nigerians a bit cautious; "We hope it is not deception‎ because we have some doubt," Mark said.

Senior government and military officials on Friday announced they had struck a ceasefire agreement with the Islamists ravaging the country's north – eliciting a nation-wide celebration.

They also assured the nation there was no fear about the genuineness of the peace deal or whether it would hold. In fact, The Gleaner can confirm that the Federal Government is already going ahead with fine-tuning the plans to fully rehabilitate the kidnapped girls and other direct victims of the insurgency as well as the areas of the North-East geo-political zone that has borne the brunt of the destruction and terror which Boko Haram unleashed on the country.

To this end, the government is going ahead with plans to ensure that the kidnapped girls are given the best benefits that modern medical care can boast off to free them from whatever trauma they could be suffering from owing to their long stay as hostages in Boko Haram’s camp or camps. Once the psychological and physical damages have been redressed, the nation will give them the means to face, once again, their educational pursuits.  

That each and every one of those girls will be able to study to the best of their abilities is important to government, which will use the girls to exemplify the government’s belief that the most important resource in Nigeria is the human being.

The government and the military were handicapped in the military attempt to rescue the girls because of the fear that the use of force may endanger the lives of the kidnapped girls. So, though the military had long announced that they knew where the girls were kept, the concern for their very lives stopped the soldiers from storming such camp or camps.

Three states, Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa, have suffered as the main theater of the Boko Haram insurgency. They too will form the focus of the government’s attempt to rehabilitate the North-East. The destroyed infrastructures, especially roads and bridges, schools and markets have to be urgently rebuilt. Great efforts will have to be made to bring the educational system working in the epicentres of the insurgency. In most of those places, the school teachers and other government workers who have fled their stations will be replaced.   

Understandably, many people have been cautious in believing the peace deal, pointing out that some past flashes of promise of a deal came to naught. But this one appears to be different. First of all, Boko Haram, obviously smarting from the renewed military offensive against it, asked that a rapprochement be reached with the Federal Government. (Please see box: The Peace Plan:)   

Still, analysts have warned that such peace implementations do take time and do not come as instantaneously as peace lovers would wish. Negotiations are never a one day thing; even how to implement issues already decided upon do take time.

Few events have tested the very soul of the nation as the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. Fraudsters tried mightily to cash on Federal Government’s efforts to see that the girls were released early; Ralph Bello-Fadile an advisor to Nigeria's National Security Advisor (NSA), once said that the NSA had been inundated with fraudsters claiming to represent the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.

 That is why their release has been the main issue of public discussion since the peace deal went public; but the real import of the agreement is that it affords peace the chance to return to Nigeria, as all Boko Haram instigated hostilities will cease.  About 57 of the about 200 abducted girls have already escaped and were re-united with their families. The return of the rest of the girls will be a huge push towards the healing of a terrible wound the insurgency has inflicted on the nation. Then peace could return and real healing would begin, and nasty distractions will stop pulling away the attention – and money – of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration from the matter of how further to develop the nation.

Box: The Peace Plan:

Ambassador Hassan Tukur is a Special Secretary to President Goodluck Jonathan. In an interview with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service, Tukur explained how discussion with Boko Haram, in which he is personally involved, began. Excerpts:

Can you shed more light on the ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram?
All thanks are to Allah. It is now about one month that we sat twice in Chad under the leadership of President Idris Deby with the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad. What we have agreed was that they should cease fire and Nigerian government should also cease fire. They (Boko Haram) have ceased fire at about 9:30pm yesterday (Thursday), and now the Nigerian government is ready to cease fire.
How can you describe the Boko Haram representatives and their commitment?
We have sat with them. We have been talking and discussing for a long time, and those that came were confidants of Imam Shekau. Our discussion touched many issues, but at the end we have resolved that for us to have dialogue with them, the first thing is to have ceasefire. Each of the parties should sheathe their swords. From there, we would move to the release of those arrested. If they are released, then Nigerian government would sit with them and discuss all the problems they would bring to the table.
President Jonathan has been saying that he feels pain whenever any Nigerian loses his life irrespective of whether he is member of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, Nigerian soldier or any Nigerian. This is why he has been saying that he is ever ready for any meaningful discussion that would restore peace in Nigeria.
You remember the appeal fund for the reconstruction of places affected by the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad insurgency. Therefore, if there is no peace; there is no way this reconstruction would take place.
You talk about the release of those arrested; are you saying that Boko Haram has agreed to release the Chibok girls and other captives, while on your part you would release their supporters?
Yes, they have agreed to release Chibok girls. At the time we had the discussion, they have agreed to release the girls and some Cameroonian citizens they have captured. The example was the Emir of Kulapat of Cameroon. In our third meeting, we would finalise on how the Chibok girls would be released. If you remember last year, we had many discussions with them, and President Jonathan has since given orders for the release of all children under 18, and women. And all these were released.
In the past there were news of ceasefire, but Boko Haram would come out to deny. Is there not going to be a repeat?
Our hope is that such thing shouldn’t repeat itself, because those we sat with, because I was one of those that sat with them, are confidants of Imam Shekau.
How did you confirm that they were his (Shekau’s) confidantes, which made you agree that they were speaking on his behalf?
This is because of the way the discussion started. They (Boko Haram) were the ones that wrote Chadian President that he should mediate the dialogue through his intelligence officials, and that was how the discussion started.
The channels through which the letters came were followed in reaching them (Boko Haram) for the dialogue. And when you are discussing with people, you can understand their commitment from the way they talk. Those of us who are civil servants we know many things that we can understand whether somebody is saying the truth or not. We can know this through our discussion. This is why we are optimistic that these people were representing Imam Abubakar Shekau.