October 04, (THEWILL) — Former presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has dismissed claims by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan that the late President Muhammadu Buhari was once nominated by Boko Haram to mediate peace talks with the Federal Government.
Jonathan had said during the public presentation of Scars, a book authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), that the insurgents once nominated Buhari as their preferred negotiator.
According to him, he had assumed this would ease future peace talks when Buhari became president, but the insurgency persisted.
Reacting in a statement on Friday, Shehu described the claim as false, stressing that neither Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, nor its later leader, Abubakar Shekau, ever proposed Buhari for such a role.
He recalled that the group was openly hostile to Buhari, citing the 2014 bomb attack on his convoy in Kaduna, which left several aides injured.
Shehu explained that the alleged nomination came from a press conference in Maiduguri by a faction led by Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, which listed Buhari and other northern leaders as potential mediators.
However, Shekau later disowned the claim, while Buhari’s then party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), also dismissed it.
According to him, CPC officials, including its then National Secretary, Buba Galadima, and Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashekun, clarified that Buhari was neither contacted nor aware of the purported nomination.
Fashekun had also accused the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party of exploiting the claim for propaganda, insisting Buhari was never linked to the insurgents.
“Without any equivocation, General Muhammadu Buhari was never directly or remotely connected with Boko Haram,” Fashekun had said at the time.
Shehu urged Jonathan to stop what he called a “distortion of history” and instead focus on credible narratives if he intends to contest in 2027.
“To win in 2027, Dr Jonathan should look for a better story to tell Nigerians,” Shehu warned.
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