The camp of late President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected former President Goodluck Jonathan’s claim that Boko Haram once nominated Buhari as their representative in peace talks with the Federal Government.

Naijaonpoint reports that Jonathan had made the revelation in Abuja on Friday during the launch of “Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum”, a book written by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), where he said the insurgents once picked Buhari to lead negotiations with the government.

But Buhari’s former spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, described the claim as false, misleading, and politically motivated.

In a statement issued late Friday, October 3, Shehu said Jonathan’s narrative appeared designed to prepare the ground for another presidential run in 2027.

“We are compelled to make a response to a terrible statement made on the late President Muhammadu Buhari by his predecessor in office, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to the effect that Boko Haram had nominated him to represent them in a dialogue with government,” Shehu said.

“If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that Mr Jonathan, you are making a false start.”

‘Boko Haram Threatened Buhari, Never Trusted Him’

Shehu argued that it was impossible for Buhari to have been considered a mediator by the terrorists, noting that Abubakar Shekau, the group’s late leader, frequently denounced and threatened Buhari.

“In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition,” he said.

He recalled that in 2014, Boko Haram attempted to assassinate Buhari in Kaduna with a bomb attack that left several of his aides injured.

“Buhari’s campaigns were built on promises to defeat Boko Haram and restore security. That put him in direct conflict with the terrorist organisation,” Shehu added.

To support his rebuttal, Shehu cited the official reaction of Buhari’s then political party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which publicly denied the nomination reports.

He quoted the CPC’s National Secretary at the time, Engr. Buba Galadima, who told journalists: “As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it. The whole thing to him is just speculation. And since nobody has contacted him as a person for him to even know who is behind what, and what the motives of the whole exercise are, he would not speak to the press.”

Shehu stressed that Buhari himself had insisted he had no knowledge of the supposed appointment and that as a patriotic Nigerian, he would only continue to pray for peace in the country.

According to Shehu, the false narrative came from a 2012 press conference in Maiduguri staged by a man called Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be Boko Haram’s commander for Southern and Northern Borno.

Abdulaziz had named Buhari, the late Shettima Ali Monguno, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, the late Bukar Abba Ibrahim and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate as mediators.

Shehu said the so-called announcement was immediately disowned by Boko Haram leaders, who clarified that Abdulaziz had no mandate from their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau.

“This shows clearly that the claims then were stage-managed, possibly by Buhari’s political opponents, to drag his name into the Boko Haram crisis,” Shehu insisted.

The former presidential aide concluded that Jonathan was only trying to rewrite history for political reasons.

“To win in 2027, Dr Jonathan should look for a better story to tell Nigerians,” he said.