Senator Shehu Sani, has given an insight into why previous attempts at negotiating for peace between Boko Haram and the Federal Government, ended in futility.

Sani, an activist before venturing into politics, said that willingness was always lacking, on the part of the federal government, to meet the demands of the insurgents.

While speaking to Vanguard, Sani who has been involved in negotiations with Boko Haram said: “A number of things went wrong with previous efforts to broker peace between Boko Haram and the Federal Government.”

“First, some of the demands made by Boko Haram were such that the government was not ready and willing to oblige.

The group has always insisted that it is willing to agree to peace provided its members are released by the government. But the government had never been ready to do that. That has been the sticking point where all previous negotiations had always crashed.”

“So, if the government says it is ready for negotiation, it should also be ready to concede certain things in the interest of peace”, he maintained.

Senator Sani, who represents Kaduna Central in the Senate, also said that he was certain that the abducted Chibok girls were still alive.

He said: “I have the belief they are alive because if they were not, certainly, the group in their own criminality and violence, would have announced that they had killed them.

“Dont forget they have been very honest in the past in telling the world who they have killed or not.

If they are not alive, certainly, we would have known but they are actually alive and I believe it is an issue which the government needs to thrash out before we go into the final phase of ending insurgency in the Northeast”.

Kolapo Olapoju