The business of ceasefire negotiations

Also published in Daily Trust

Against the backdrop of the steadily failing Nigerian state, an increasing number of unscrupulous Nigerians are growing more desperate and mischievously creative in devising means of making fast and illegal fortune even at the expense of the lives of millions of their fellow citizens.

This trend is taking more frightening dimensions as even the handling of Boko Haram crisis is being, or rather has been, turned into a highly lucrative money-making business, which explains mystery behind its persistence and alarming escalation.

As it increasingly becomes clearer, the growing cases of misappropriation of funds meant for the procurement of armaments, other military hardwires and soldiers’ welfare have become a major source of quick money for many top military officers and their civilian counterparts in the corridors of power. Besides, the growing incidents of the mysterious disappearance of weapons that eventually end up in the hands of Boko Haram terrorists or other criminal gangs confirm the complicity of many elements within the military and the other security establishments.

For instance, the recent claim by the police that the Kaduna State Police Command’s Armament Officer, DSP Nanbol Audu committed suicide in police custody after he was arrested while stealing weapons from the Command’s weapon store might not be true, after all. Instead he was probably murdered in order to frustrate any investigation likely to expose more and probably higher-ranking police officers involved in the scandal.

Moreover, the relative ease with which arms are systematically smuggled into Nigeria through the country’s sea, land and air boarders confirms the involvement of many high-ranking officials who immensely benefit from such illegal dealings.

Yet, many other Nigerian fraudsters take advantage of the obvious lack of political will and determination to end this lingering insurgency and cook up fake proposals purportedly to facilitate reaching out to Boko Haram leadership and indeed coordinate ceasefire negotiations between them and the federal government.

For obvious reasons this particular type of fraud appeals to an increasing number of Nigerian fraudsters for its relative ease, because all it takes, of course apart from unethical and indeed inhuman mindset, is the ability to reach out to some corrupt influential officials with insatiable greed for illegitimate wealth who are also unrepentantly determined to pursue illicit wealth even at the expense of the lives of innocent people who are being maimed, displaced, subjected to misery and indeed killed on a daily basis.

The growing interest of many vested interests in these fake ceasefire negotiation facilitation proposals with Boko Haram insurgents makes it increasingly competitive, which means only well connected vested interests and lobbyists get their fraudulent ceasefire negotiation facilitation proposals accepted by the government. 

Interestingly enough, a couple of months ago, a gentle-looking man travelled all the way from Nigeria to Dubai with the sole intention of seeking the connivance of a fellow Nigerian man currently based in the UAE and who is widely believed to have contact with Boko Haram leadership, in order to concoct a bogus ceasefire negotiation facilitation proposal.

However, since that gentle-looking man only knew the name of the person he came to Dubai to meet with and had actually never met him in person before, he reached out to a mutual acquaintance in Dubai and sought his intervention to, in turn, reach out to me and seek my assistance to facilitate his meeting with that UAE-based fellow Nigerian.

Out of curiosity, I agreed to meet with that gentle-looking Nigerian man who unashamedly told me his mission and added that his associate in Abuja was a relative to President Jonathan and that they greatly needed the cooperation of that UAE-based fellow Nigerian to execute their fraudulent scheme. Though I of course know the UAE-based fellow Nigerian he wanted to meet with, the gentle-looking Nigerian visitor soon realized, from my response, that I would not facilitate such a meeting, so he gave up and went back to Nigeria after I had learned from him more information about this unethical trend, which further confirmed the general suspicion of the involvement of many people in it.

After all, from the unmistakable clues that often cast serious doubts on the authenticity of such ceasefire negotiations, there are reasonable grounds to suspect some highest-ranking government officials of complicity in such deceptive ceasefire negotiations. Besides, such clues are too obvious to elude the notice of even the most ordinary observer with the least interest in current affairs.

Though the fraudsters behind the most recent bogus ceasefire negotiations in which an unashamed imposter called Danladi Ahmadu claimed to be the representative of Boko Haram were particularly cunning having been able to deceive the Chadian government also, and even before Shekau eventually denied the whole thing, the prevailing circumstances then, the military situation on the ground and even Danladi’s talks to the media had all suggested that the whole negotiation issue was a big scam. These, among other things, explain why the crisis lingers and is likely to linger even longer.

In any case as the crisis persists, bogus ceasefire negotiations would continue to be held and indeed more fake negotiation facilitation proposals would also continue to flow thereby undermining the already slim prospect, if any, of creating the minimum level of mutual trust that could provide the necessary platform to engage the actual Boko Haram leadership in genuine ceasefire negotiations.