Nigeria: President Jonathan creates panel to offer amnesty to Boko Haram

Nigeria has formed a panel that will create an amnesty program for the al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram extremists to quell a bloody terrorist campaign of bombings and shootings that has killed hundreds of people across its north, the government said Wednesday.

The 26-person panel, created by President Goodluck Jonathan, has a 60-day deadline to come up with an offer for militants who have killed civilians with apparent impunity.

The panel is composed mostly of people from Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north where Boko Haram is based, has also been instructed to set up a “framework through which disarmament could take place within a 60-day time frame”. A similar program in 2009 worked to halt the majority of attacks by militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta.

The panel which includes police and military officials, as well as politicians and human rights activists, would “constructively engage key members of Boko Haram and define a comprehensive and workable framework for resolving the crisis of insecurity in the country,” according to a statement issued by presidential spokesman Reuben Abati. The panel will also offer a “comprehensive victims’ support program,”.

The idea of an amnesty, discussed in some corners by analysts, came to a head in March when the Sultan of Sokoto, one of the country’s top Muslim leaders, called for it. While the sultan did not speak in specifics, others have suggested offering an amnesty deal in line with one previously given to militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta in 2009. That deal offered cash payments and job training to fighters in return for them giving up their weapons and halting attacks on oil companies.

The Boko Haram is believed to be made up of many different factions. It has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state under sharia law in the north, however its demands have repeatedly shifted. Some members are likely hardcore Islamists who would resist any concession to Nigeria’s secular government. Other members are thought to be dejected northern youths who have been radicalized.

Boko Haram terrorist attacks are estimated to have left more than 3,000 people dead since 2009.