President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to inaugurate the Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North in Abuja, today. The President yesterday named Aisha Wakil (a lawyer) as member of the committee.
Wakil’s inclusion is contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.
The committee is mandated to identify and constructively engage key leaders of Boko Haram, and develop a workable framework for amnesty and disarmament of members of the group. The decision to include Wakil follows the withdrawal of two members of the committee shortly after it was constituted in Abuja, last week.
President of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, SCSN, Dr. Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, and the President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, CRCN, Shehu Sani, rejected their membership of the committee. Sani rejected his nomination and put forward the names of persons through which the government could reach out to the sect leaders for dialogue.
While alleging insincerity on the part of the government during an interview on the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, Ahmed said he rejected the offer because of the bitter experience he had with the government when he voluntarily tried to mediate between the authorities and members of the Islamic sect.
Ahmed also faulted the composition of the committee, saying its Chairman, the Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Taminu Turaki, and the Secretary, a representative from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, would only feed the government with what would be pleasing to it.
He said: “Previously, I made such moves twice and it wasn’t the government that asked me to do that and we had reached a stage where, had the government agreed with what we got, what we resolved with the sect members called Boko Haram, by now we would have forgotten everything; Nigeria would have witnessed peace by now.
“When we told the government everything we discussed with them and the agreement we had which were not difficult to do, that first of all, if the dialogue was truly genuine, their wives and children that were unjustly detained should be released because they had not committed any crime. “We advised the government on that, we said even if you continue to detain them there was no gain in doing so. The government said they will release them but did not.” 
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