Nigerian President Explores Amnesty for Christian Persecutor Boko Haram

Christian Reaction
Christian organizations and leaders have responded almost universally negatively to the idea of amnesty for Boko Haram, whose bloody campaign across the Northern states has killed and injured hundreds of Christians and destroyed numerous Christian churches, schools, homes, businesses and farms. Vanguard Media published a roundup of reaction from the leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria, or CAN , including:

• Rev. Joshua Ray Mains, Bauchi State Secretary: “Why should they be given amnesty? Are we congratulating them for the people they have sent to their early graves or are we encouraging them to continue with their acts so that other groups can take advantage of the amnesty and continue to disrupt the peace of the country?”
• Rev. Abare Kallah, Gombe state chairman: “It’s not about favoring one side. We are also wounded. If they are thinking that amnesty is going to be given to Boko Haram, I am sure that there is going to be another faction or group that the federal government cannot contend with.”

Earlier, Vanguard Media quoted CAN General Secretary Rev. Musa Asake: “By canvassing for amnesty to blood-thirsty, Islamic fundamentalists who have killed without provocation, the JNI is promoting the culture of crass impunity that desecrates the sanctity of human life.” AndChristianity Today reports that CAN President Ayo Oritsejafor considers Boko Haram “terrorists that should be crushed by Nigeria’s military.”

The association’s youth wing issued a statement declaring amnesty would amount to “a clarion call to all terrorism in Nigeria” that would “fuel the anger of the Christian youth.”

“Mr. President should remember that the amnesty being advocated is for Muslim youths who are the Boko Haram members and who have killed, maimed our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and children and also bombed and burnt our churches without provocation,” youth president Simon Dolly is quoted as saying.

Nigeria’s Catholic leaders are largely skeptical of amnesty for Boko Haram, though some say they would welcome dialog as a way to stop the violence. Catholic News Service published a roundup of clerical views, in which:

• Archbishop Felix Alaba Job of Ibadan, in Nigeria’s south, “questioned why the government should ‘grant amnesty to vandals of human souls and bodies.’ “
• Retired Bishop Julius Babatunde Adelakun of Oyo, also in the south, “said granting amnesty to Boko Haram was ‘like granting amnesty to terrorists, it is unthinkable.’ “
• Bishop Felix Femi Ajakaye of nearby Ekiti said “‘if the government grants amnesty to Boko Haram, other groups would ask for amnesty, too. And when you go on granting amnesty to this sect, what about the victims of the Boko Haram’s insurgency?’ “

 At the same time, Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja said “we have to at least consider the possibility of another way of doing things,” according to the independent, lay-operated Catholic World News.

“The amnesty for Boko Haram must be considered as an option to stop the violence,” Onaiyekan told CWN. “In any war at some point you have to start talking among the contenders and I think that now is the moment. It is better to talk than shoot.” However, Onaiyekan also is quoted as saying any amnesty deal must include reparations for victims and repentance. “Without these two conditions, amnesty cannot be offered,” he said.

The emeritus archbishop of the Lagos archdiocese, Anthony Okogie, offered a similar view. “I am not against considering amnesty if the situation warrants it,” he told Premium Times. But “granting amnesty to a faceless group that consistently fails to dialogue with you is a mockery. How do we compensate all those who have lost their loved ones in the over two years of carnage? These are issues we need to address.”

Even from afar, the prospect of amnesty for Boko Haram is running into strenuous Christian opposition. The New York-based Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans issued a statement April 5, well before Jonathan formed the Amnesty Security Committee, calling the idea” treachery against the wives, children and relatives of the victims of Boko Haram terrorists.”

Muslim Reaction
Despite the fact that the Sultan of Sokoto placed the prospect of amnesty on the table, Nigeria’s Muslim leaders are not uniformly behind the idea. Sahara Reporters captured several responses:

• “Nigeria is catalytically deteriorating. Today the national discourse is on corruption and amnesty for terrorism,” Sheikh Ahmad Gumi said during a March 26 sermon. Gumi said the cure for Boko Haram’s insurgency ought to involve a Muslim military commander of “special strike squads” that would, with the help of civilian cooperation, extract the militants from Nigerian society “like removing a tumor from the brain.”
• A Nigerian group calling itself Muslims Against Terror called the President’s exploration of amnesty “a disastrous precedence, where people believe they simply need to kill innocent people to get cash from the government.” Instead, the group said, “the government should consider a social welfare scheme for the people of the north because the entire area would hardly recover from the terrorist experience.”
• In Lagos, the director of Muslim Rights Concern, Ishaq Akintola, praised Jonathan’s initiative. “The Nigerian president is now thinking like the President of the whole country. Only by granting amnesty to the Boko Haram group can the President reposition the country for peaceful coexistence,” Akintola said.

Military Reaction
As the AP has noted, “human rights groups and local citizens blame both Boko Haram and security forces for committing violent atrocities against the local civilian population, fueling rage in the region.” Nigeria’s military is walking a fine line. Little has been heard about the commanders’ attitudes toward Jonathan’s amnesty initiative since their early April meeting at which they lobbied him to drop it.

Among the scraps of evidence to emerge is an April 12 report from Leadership Nigeria that the top brass is expected to endorse amnesty, under the condition that soldiers remain deployed to Nigeria’s trouble spots. Citing unnamed sources, Leadership Nigeria said the commanders’ position was that “as long as the factor that brought the soldiers onto the streets persists, our soldiers remain on the streets.”

Boko Haram Reaction
And what of Boko Haram itself?

“Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is talking about granting us amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the contrary, it is we that should grant you [a] pardon,” said Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, according to the BBC, citing an Agence France-Presse transcription of an audio statement issued by the sect’s leader. Shekau issued his refusal days before Goodluck Jonathan’s April 17 announcement of the creation of the Presidential committee.

Vanguard Media reported that “another factional leader of the sect, Abu Dardam, had spurned the offer by the government, describing it as an insult. He claimed that the group rejected the offer because it did not recognize democracy as a form of government and the Nigerian Constitution.”