by Rachel Ogbu

The United States of America have announced its support on amnesty for Boko Haram.

On Wednesday, the Political Counsellor at the Embassy of the USA, Gregory Lawless, said it backed the Federal Government’s plan on the condition that amnesty was the solution to ending violence in the north and around 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.

“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.”

Lawless was speaking on the issue at a teleconference on US-Nigerian Binational Commission. He added that on another note, the US had not changed its disapproval of the state pardon given to former Bayelsa Governor, Dipreye Alamieyeseigha.

“The situation has not changed,” he said.

According to reports, U.S. Department of State spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, recently spoke in Washington.

“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.”

The Punch reports:

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”.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, former president Muhammadu Buhari has thrown his support behind the federal government efforts at exploring the feasibility of granting amnesty to Boko Haram members in the interest of peace.

Buhari said this yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State while on a visit to condole with Mrs. H.I.D Awolowo, the matriarch of the Awolowo family, whose son, Oluwole, died recently.

“This is not the first time amnesty would be given to a violent group, you remember it happened in the time of Yar ‘Adua when he granted amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta. Whatever that would bring us peace as a society, we should do it,” he said.