Former presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has debunked claims by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan that Boko Haram once nominated former President Muhammadu Buhari to mediate between the group and the Federal Government.

In a strongly worded statement on  Friday, Shehu described Jonathan’s remark as “false, misleading and politically motivated,” suggesting it may be part of the former leader’s strategy ahead of a possible 2027 presidential ambition.

According to Shehu, at no time did the late leaders of Boko Haram, Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, nominate Buhari for any negotiation role. Instead, he recalled that Shekau consistently denounced Buhari and even attempted to assassinate him in 2014 during a bomb attack in Kaduna.

“Contrary to the news making the rounds in those years, General Buhari denied knowledge of any such nomination. In fact, his campaigns were rooted in defeating Boko Haram and restoring peace to Nigeria,” Shehu said.

He cited a 2012 statement by the then National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr. Buba Galadima, who disclosed that Buhari had never been contacted by anyone about such a role. “He (Buhari) said the whole thing to him was just speculation. And since nobody contacted him, he would not speak to the press,” Galadima said at the time.

Shehu explained that the confusion arose when a faction of Boko Haram, led by one Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, held a press conference in Maiduguri claiming Buhari and some northern leaders were chosen as mediators. However, the group’s main leadership under Shekau quickly disowned Abdulaziz, declaring that he had no mandate to speak for them.

The statement also referenced the position of the late CPC National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashekun, who accused Jonathan’s administration and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of weaponising the allegation for political gain. Fashekun maintained that Buhari “has never been directly or remotely connected with any insurrection or insurgency against the Nigerian nation” and accused the PDP of complicity in the nation’s security challenges.

Shehu stressed that Buhari remained “a quintessential patriot who consistently stood against terrorism and insecurity,” adding that Jonathan should “find a better story to tell Nigerians if he intends to contest the 2027 elections.”

He concluded by recalling Jonathan’s own admission during his presidency that Boko Haram had infiltrated his government, a revelation later echoed by his then National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi.

Read Garba Shehu’s full Statement below

Boko Haram Did Not Nominate Buhari As Their Mediator.

*To be president in 2027, Goodluck Jonathan should look for another story to tell Nigerians.

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We are compelled to make a response to a terrible statement made on the late president Muhammadu Buhari by his predecessor in office, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to the effect that Boko Haram had nominated him to represent them in a dialogue with government.
If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that “Mr. Jonathan, you are making a false start.”

Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the Boko Haram terrorist group, never nominated Muhammadu Buhari for any such role. In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition.
In 2014, Muhammadu Buhari escaped a bomb attack on his life by Boko Haram in Kaduna, in which his personal staff suffered various degrees of injury.
Buhari’s campaigns focused on fighting Boko Haram and restoring security to Nigeria whenever he became president, putting him in direct opposition to the terrorist group’s leader.
Contrary to the news making the rounds in those years that the radical Islamist extremist –Boko Haram had nominated General Muhammadu Buhari as the mediator between them and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the proposed peace talk, the retired Military General denied knowledge of his nomination.

In a statement issued by the then National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr Buba Galadima, Buhari, the national leader of the CPC said he not aware of the appointment: “As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it,” Galadima said.
Continuing, the party secretary told reporters the “he (Buhari) said the whole thing to him, is just speculation. And since nobody has contacted him as a person for him to even know who is behind what, and what the motives of the whole exercise are, he would not speak to the press.” He revealed that Buhari, the 2011 presidential candidate of the CPC, further told him that as an elder statesman and a patriotic Nigerian, he will continue to pray until peace and tranquillity return to Nigeria.

What led to the misleading information was that a faction of the terrorist group, possibly sponsored by Buhari’s opponents, staged a press
conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through a certain Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno, saying that the sect would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and the then Senator, now late Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, also late, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the federal government.

Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram who claimed that he had “no mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau.”

Speaking on to the issue , the then CPC national publicity secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashekun, now late, lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for latching on Buhari’s alleged nomination for political reasons.

Fashekun described Buhari’s purported nomination as “the latest gambit in the desire of this organically corrupt PDP-led Federal Government in diverting the attention of the unsuspecting Nigerian public from the on-going massive looting of their common patrimony.”

Fashekun also said: “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. He remains the quintessential patriot that continues to magnetise the very best across the ethno-religious boundaries within the Nigerian nation-space.” The party chieftain accused the PDP of being responsible for the growing insecurity in the country, insisting:

“As we have stated in an earlier communication, the (PDP), as a corporate entity, is the harbinger of the insecurity travails of the Nigerian people for the sole reason of ensuring perpetuity in governance.” Fashekun listed the three categories of Boko Haram and alleged that the PDP-led government is sponsoring one of them. “From recollection of events of the last two years, there are three variants of the Boko Haram: the original Boko Haram that is at daggers drawn with the Nigerian authority for the extra-judicial killing of their leader; the criminal Boko Haram that is involved in all criminality for economic reasons and of course, the most lethal of all, the Political Boko Haram, which this PDP-led Federal Government represents.

“The President, Dr, Good-luck Jonathan, had once alerted the nation of the ubiquitous presence of Boko Haram in his government, a fact aptly amplified by his erstwhile National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi.” He further drew instances from the revelations made by State Security Service. “Undoubtedly, the latest revelations by the State Security Services (SSS) on the complicity of the top echelon of the PDP leadership in Boko Haram activities aptly bear testimony of the noxious subterfuge to extirpate the essence of our nationhood.”
To win in 2027, Dr. Jonathan should look for a better story to tell Nigerians.

Signed:
Garba Shehu,
Former Presidential Spokesman.