Former presidential aide, Garba Shehu, has blasted former President Goodluck Jonathan for alleging that late President Muhammadu Buhari was once nominated by Boko Haram to act as a mediator between the group and the Nigerian government.
In a statement on Friday shared via his X (formerly Twitter) account, Shehu accused Jonathan of fabricating a “false narrative” to mislead Nigerians ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“Boko Haram did not nominate Buhari as their mediator. To be president in 2027, Goodluck Jonathan should look for another story to tell Nigerians,” Shehu declared.
The former presidential spokesman argued that Jonathan’s claim was not only misleading but also an insult to Buhari’s legacy as a leader who risked his life in the fight against terrorism.
“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,’” Shehu said.
He pointed out that Boko Haram’s notorious leaders, Muhammed Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau, never sought Buhari’s involvement in peace talks. Instead, Shekau consistently targeted Buhari with threats and violent attacks.
“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,” Shehu recalled.
Shehu reminded Nigerians that as far back as 2012, Buhari publicly denied any knowledge of being nominated by Boko Haram for mediation. At the time, the then National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr. Buba Galadima, told journalists:
“As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it. 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.”
According to Galadima, Buhari made it clear that as a patriotic Nigerian, he would only continue to pray for the restoration of peace and stability in the country.
Shehu also explained how a faction of Boko Haram, led by Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, announced in 2012 that Buhari and other northern leaders should act as mediators. However, this claim was quickly disowned by Shekau himself, who said Abdulaziz had no mandate to speak for the terrorist group.
The controversy, Shehu noted, was weaponized by Jonathan’s administration and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for political advantage at the time. He cited the words of the then CPC National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashekun, who accused Jonathan of hiding behind the allegation to divert attention from corruption scandals.
Fashekun had said: “This is 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.”
Shehu insisted that Jonathan’s recent attempt to revive the false narrative was a desperate move aimed at reviving his political career at the expense of Buhari’s reputation.
He concluded by warning Nigerians not to be deceived by Jonathan’s claims. “History is clear. Buhari fought Boko Haram with everything he had, even at the risk of his own life. Jonathan cannot rewrite that history simply to score cheap political points,” Shehu said.