Dilemma of the Dialogue Committee

Also published in Daily Trust

President and V.P. with the committee members

The Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North has, presumably, got down to business to establish contact with Boko Haram leadership in order to engage them in talks, with a view to achieving common ground, which would lead to the restoration of peace in the increasingly precarious security situation in the region. The committee’s task is undoubtedly difficult in view of government’s inconsistency and obvious inexperience in handling crises of this nature. Besides, the formation of the committee and its inauguration coincided with a noticeable escalation of violence, which has since then persisted.

Anyway, first of all, from the composition of the committee itself, it is clear that government’s approach is aimed at merely addressing the symptoms of the Boko Haram phenomenon, instead of addressing the core ideology that motivates them to take to violence in the first place. In other words, government wrongly assumes that the crisis is a conventional insurgency, the resolution of which could be achieved through a conventional process of dialogue.

Whereas the reality is that, Boko Haram as an ideological phenomenon is based on some wrong and bizarre misconceptions of Islamic religious texts, which any effective dialogue with them must address in order to clear those misconceptions, and hence persuade them to renounce violence. And it is obvious that this task can only be accomplished by well-educated Islamic clerics, who are familiar with the dynamics of such misconceptions, how they creep into one’s mind and indeed how to engage indoctrinated persons in intellectual discussions to clear their misconceptions and bring them back to the right path.

With due respect to the committee members, perhaps only Sheikh Ahmed Lemu and Sheikh Abubakar Tureta are in the position to conduct this task, the rest who are mostly either serving or former politicians, technocrats, academics security experts and diplomats, are consummated yan boko, who are however hardly if at all familiar with the amount of exposure in advance Islamic knowledge necessarily needed to conduct this task. They could yet be needed when the ideological and intellectual aspects of the phenomenon have been thoroughly addressed by such Islamic clerics.

Incidentally, many countries around the world have also grappled with similar phenomenon, yet Saudi Arabian experience in tackling it was particularly remarkable hence worthy of emulation. The country had, particularly in the mid and late 90s suffered a wave of indiscriminate attacks by some misguided elements, who were equally brainwashed into believing that they were doing the right thing, of course based on their misconception of some Islamic religious instructions and teachings.

Though the Saudi government confronted them with appropriate security measures, it, in the meantime, introduced a program, which it called Almunasaha through which some respected Islamic clerics engaged many of such misguided elements in intellectual discussions over the legitimacy and worthiness of their adopted mission, consequently many of them renounced it and repented hence underwent an effective rehabilitation process, which led to their reintegration into the mainstream society and the eventual cessation of the hostilities.

By the way also, the method adopted in the program wasn’t argumentative per se, instead it was encouraging enough to inspire the misguided elements to embrace it, because even from its name i.e. Almunasaha, which means to mutually counsel one another, it was designed to convince the targeted people that it was not a platform to give them lectures or instructions.  Instead it was a platform to freely share and exchange ideas on the meanings and intendments of relevant Islamic religious texts, so as to arrive at the best interpretation that tallied with the actual concept and mission of Islamic religion as contained in the noble Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah, according to the perception of the pious predecessors (Assalaf Assaleh).

Therefore, unless this method is adopted in addressing Boko Haram ideological phenomenon, it would be hard if not impossible to end this crisis. The current approach would, at the best-case scenario, only bring respite for a while before the hostilities resume.

Anyway, another dilemma faced by the committee is how to establish contact with the real Boko Haram leadership. Unfortunately, government and some influential individuals in the country have been deceived by some imposters who pretended to be among the leaders of Boko Haram and claimed to be interested in dialogue with the government. And even though Shekau himself has disowned them and identified one Ahmed Salkida, who had made a failed attempt to facilitate a dialogue with them, as the only instance when a genuine step was made in this regard. Government continues to deny Mr Salkida appropriate recognition and support to give it a try once again.

Perhaps among all the committee members, only Barrister Aisha Wakil has some access to some members of the group by virtue of some roles she had played in the past to alleviate the plight of some captured foot soldiers of the group. Though even she and indeed the influential interest groups that promote her as a reliable link to bring Boko Haram to dialogue, are not likely to deliver, for they obviously lack access to the group’s leadership where strategic decisions are taken.

As a matter fact, even Dr Datti Ahmed and Mr Shehu Sani rejected the offer to serve in the committee because they had realized that without Mr Salkida, who was apparently their only link with the group during that only real, though later botched dialogue attempt, their membership in the committee would not make any difference.

It’s very unfortunate that despite the severity of the security situation, which also deteriorates further, there are some unscrupulous individuals out there who deliberately ignore and indeed undermine any process to reach out to the only genuine link to the genuine Boko Haram leadership. 

     

Therefore in as much as there is need to engage Boko Haram in dialogue, government should set and comply with appropriate criteria to select members of the dialogue committee and follow it up with seriousness and commitment to implement whatever might be agreed upon.