US, Buhari back amnesty for Boko Haram members
Buhari
The United States of America on
Wednesday said it backed the Federal Government’s plan to grant amnesty
to members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
The Political Counsellor at the Embassy
of the USA, Gregory Lawless, said in Abuja that the American government
would support amnesty for Boko Haram if it was the solution to ending
violence in the north and other parts of the country.
“We think it is a positive development.
We will work with Nigerian government as it develops its own policy
approach as to counter violent extremism,” Lawless said in a response to
a question about the US position on the amnesty the Nigerian government
was planning to grant the Islamic sect at a teleconference on
US-Nigerian Binational Commission.
He added, “Security concerns in Nigeria
would be addressed through our regional security cooperation
working
group as part of the Bi-National Commission.
“We are looking at a holistic approach to address the unmet grievances of the population, especially in the north.
“Through that mechanism, we think by
broadening the scope of response to violent extremism, we believe that
we will be addressing some of those issues in a more fundamental way.”
However Lawless said the US had not
changed its condemnation of the state pardon granted to former Bayelsa
Governor, Dipreye Alamieyeseigha, by President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The situation has not changed,” he said.
Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of
State, Victoria Nuland, at a daily press briefing in Washington had
said, “We see this as a setback for the fight against corruption, and
also for our ability to play the strong role we’ve played in supporting
rule of law and legal institution-building in Nigeria, which is very
important for the future of the country obviously.
“We have made clear to Nigerians that this puts a question mark on the kind of work that we’ve been trying to do with them.
“We haven’t yet taken the kinds of steps
that you’re suggesting Matt (the reporter who asked the question), but
we’re continuing to look at what’s appropriate.”
But Lawless said that whatever the disappointment was, the US had since moved on with its relationship with Nigeria.
“We have a very mature relationship. So
we can recognise our differences and opinions on issues. We are moving
on; we have a lot of things to do,” he said.
Counting the successes achieved so far
by the bi-national commission, Lawless said the commission had
successfully integrated civil society into the electoral process prior
to the 2011 elections.
He said the commission had been able to
sustain an elevated dialogue with energy sector officials on policy
reforms to increase investment.
He said the two countries had also
agreed to explore a partnership with the Nigerian Army to build its
civil affairs capacity and to build trust between Nigeria’s citizens and
the military.
The U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission is a high-level forum for advancing issues of mutual concern.
Inaugurated in April 2010 by the US
Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, and former Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, the Commission’s five
working groups meet regularly to focus and deepen engagement on issues
concerning governance, energy, security, agriculture, and the Niger
Delta.
The Working Groups include, Good Governance; Transparency and Integrity;
Regional Security Cooperation; Energy and Investment; Food Security and Agriculture, as well as the Niger Delta.
The working groups established
benchmarks for transparent and inclusive elections, including
registering voters, appointing electoral commission leaders, and
allocating independent election funding.
On regional security cooperation,
Lawless said, “We provided lessons learned from our post-September 11
experiences in an effort to strengthen Nigeria’s community engagement
and strategic communications efforts. We offered to help Nigeria develop
an intelligence fusion centre to improve their intelligence, analysis,
and dissemination efforts, although Nigerian officials are still
deciding their scope and mission requirements for such a centre.”
According to him, the Energy and
Investment working group has focused primarily on reform of Nigeria’s
power and hydrocarbon sectors.
Lawless explained, “We have been
heartened by Nigeria’s ongoing progress on comprehensive power reform
incentives and private investment in infrastructure to address massive
power shortages.
“The United States is providing policy
support to strengthen Nigeria’s domestic agricultural policies. The
United States supports efforts to expand agricultural lending and
otherwise improve private agriculture sector growth.”
He added, “We agreed to collaborate
further to build on Nigeria’s amnesty programme by advancing economic
development and environmental protection of the Delta. We also committed
to partner with Nigeria to enhance regional maritime security and to
reduce the inflow of small arms and light weapons”.
