Amnesty For Boko Haram Is Jonathan’s Bait For North’s Support In 2015 – Balarabe Musa

Alhaji Balarabe Musa, second Republic governor of old Kaduna State,  has reacted to President Goodluck Jonathan’s new resolve to grant amnesty to Boko Haram members.

He said: “If President Jonathan eventually grants amnesty to members of the dreaded Boko Haram, it is a bait to getting political concession from the North in 2015.

“Yes, he can do it” Musa emphasised. “It is an attempt. He can use it. May be that was his reason for not doing anything about Boko Haram because he wants to use it to buy political concession from the north. I have always believed that Boko Haram is more likely to be an agent provocateur established by the federal government to divert attention.”

Musa, however, justified the calls for amnesty to Boko Haram members saying a precedent had already been set with the Niger Delta militants in the South-South geo-political zone of the country by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

According to him: “With the Amnesty given to the Niger Delta militants, once you create a thing like this, you create something that can always been used by others. It is very difficult for any reasonable person to understand why the president cannot give amnesty to Boko Haram. Secondly, Yar’adua didn’t give amnesty to Niger Delta militants because he was convinced they had a case. He gave them amnesty because his government was too weak and was afraid of what would have happened if the amnesty had not been given to them. So because of the consideration, he gave amnesty to buy time. Fortunately, it has worked. Now, the Jonathan administration is even weaker than the Yar’adua government because Yar’adua’s government at least had the support of the Northern oligarchy,” Musa explained.