A former presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, has refuted claims by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan that former President Muhammadu Buhari was once nominated by Boko Haram to mediate peace talks with the Federal Government.
Shehu, who served as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Buhari, described Jonathan’s assertion as false, insisting that no such nomination or negotiation ever occurred.
In a statement titled “Boko Haram did not nominate Buhari as their mediator,” released on Friday, Shehu said Jonathan’s claim was “a false start” ahead of a possible 2027 presidential comeback bid.
Jonathan had made the remark on Thursday at the public presentation of Scars, a memoir by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), where he claimed that Boko Haram once listed Buhari as their preferred negotiator.
The former president said, “One of the committees we set up then — the Boko Haram nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government.
So I was feeling that, oh, if they nominated Buhari to represent them and have a discussion with the government committee, then when Buhari took over, it could have been an easy way to negotiate with them and they would have handed over their guns. But it was still there till today.”
However, Shehu dismissed the narrative as entirely baseless, stating that Boko Haram’s known leaders, Muhammed Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau, never nominated Buhari or sought his involvement in any talks.
“In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition,” Shehu said, recalling that Buhari narrowly escaped a 2014 Boko Haram bomb attack in Kaduna, which left some of his aides injured.
Shehu explained that the confusion originated from a 2012 press briefing in Maiduguri by a breakaway faction led by Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who listed Buhari and several northern elders as possible mediators.
“Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram, who claimed that he had ‘no mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau,’” he clarified.
At the time, Buhari denied any knowledge of the purported nomination. Shehu quoted the then Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) National Secretary, Buba Galadima, as saying:
“As at 10pm yesterday when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it. Since nobody has contacted him as a person, he would not speak to the press.”
The issue later became a political flashpoint in the lead-up to the 2015 general elections.
The late CPC Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashekun, also issued a statement at the time, accusing the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of exploiting the rumour for political advantage.
“Without any scintilla of equivocation, General Muhammadu Buhari has never been directly or remotely connected with any insurrection or insurgency against the Nigerian nation and her people,” Fashekun said, describing Buhari as “the quintessential patriot that continues to magnetise the very best across ethno-religious boundaries within the Nigerian nation-space.”
He further alleged that the PDP itself bore responsibility for worsening insecurity, claiming there were “three variants of Boko Haram — the original sect, a criminal faction, and the most lethal of all, the Political Boko Haram, which the PDP-led Federal Government represents.”
Concluding his statement, Shehu took a swipe at Jonathan, saying,
“To be president in 2027, Goodluck Jonathan should look for another story to tell Nigerians… To win in 2027, Dr. Jonathan should look for a better story to tell Nigerians.”