Boko Haram never nominated Buhari as mediator — Garba Shehu

Former presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has dismissed claims by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan that Boko Haram once nominated former President Muhammadu Buhari to mediate between the sect and the Nigerian government.

In a strongly worded statement on Friday, Shehu described Jonathan’s remarks as “false” and politically motivated ahead of the 2027 presidential race.

He argued that neither the late Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, nor his successor, Abubakar Shekau, ever sought Buhari’s intervention.

Instead, Shekau openly denounced and threatened Buhari, while the former president narrowly escaped a Boko Haram bomb attack in Kaduna in 2014.

Shehu recalled that in 2011, when reports surfaced that Buhari was chosen as a mediator, the then-Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) quickly issued a rebuttal. According to the party’s then National Secretary, Buba Galadima, Buhari denied knowledge of the claim, dismissing it as “speculation.”

The statement explained that the confusion originated from a press conference in Maiduguri by one Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who allegedly spoke for a faction of Boko Haram.

Abdulaziz listed Buhari and other northern leaders as possible mediators, but his claim was later disowned by Shekau, who insisted Abdulaziz had no mandate to speak for the sect.

Shehu also cited the reaction of the late CPC National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashekun, who accused Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of exploiting the purported nomination for political gain.

Fashekun had described the claim as a distraction from what he called the PDP-led government’s “massive looting” and linked the ruling party to the worsening insecurity of the time.

“Without any scintilla of equivocation, General Muhammadu Buhari has never been directly or remotely connected with any insurrection or insurgency against Nigeria. He remains the quintessential patriot,” Shehu reiterated.

He further alleged that Jonathan’s administration not only failed to tackle insecurity but also harbored elements of Boko Haram within its ranks.

He pointed to past statements by Jonathan and his then National Security Adviser, the late Gen. Andrew Azazi, as proof of the PDP’s complicity.

Concluding, Shehu challenged Jonathan to find “a better story to tell Nigerians” if he intends to run for president in 2027.