The Federal government has not ruled out dialogue with the Boko Haram Islamist sect if its leaders are willing to emerge from their hiding place, Minister of State for Defence, Erelu Dr. Olusola Obada said on Tuesday.
Obada, who was speaking while hosting the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Chris Cooter and the Canadian military attaché, Col. J.G Savard in her office, Obada urged the Canadan government to assist in taming the menace of terrorists in the country. She explained that inasmuch as the government is ready to employ dialogue in restoring peace to North Nigeria where the sect is unleashing mayhem, the leadership of the Boko Haram sect has not helped matters by remaining underground.
“For our local problem, we even believe that some of the elements over there in Mali are having an influence here. We will be happy if you can assist in training troops, so that all these things will become a thing of the past,” she said.
“As much as we aspire to bring the thing under control or eradicate it, we also believe that if these people are known there, is nothing stopping us from dialoguing with them. For now, we don’t know them but you can be assured that the president and the government are not averse to bringing peace to the country through dialogue. So we are not closing that option.”
Obada maintained that Nigeria is a united country that will remain so irrespective of prevailing security challenges, adding that the goal of the government is to restore peace to troubles regions of the country.
On the Malian problem, the minister disclosed that both President Goodluck Jonathan and his Burkinabe counterpart are mediators in the crisis and once it becomes clear that the dialogue has failed, the ECOMOG Force would storm the northern part of Mali to flush the terrorists out.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Cooter examined the bilateral commission between Canada and Nigeria and observed that, of recent both countries have seen the need to take it to a higher level to cover such an area as security.
He said it is because of Nigeria’s importance to Canada that the North American country has been working in Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent as a whole.
“We have taken note of your great role in West Africa and in Africa, particularly your role in working with ECOWAS, African Union, and the international community to restore constitutional order and democracy in Mali,” Cooter said. “We had the same cooperation with you in Sudan. Our visit today is to explore how we would be able to assist and expand cooperation with the Ministry of Defence.”
