Written by Olawale Rasheed, Abuja Monday, 02 July 2012

AS part of a soft approach to the ongoing Islamist insurgency, the Federal Government has commenced discreet contacts with moderate Islamist salafists who, while sharing similar thoughts with the Jihadi salafists within the Boko Haram sect, are opposed to armed struggle.

Previous efforts at reaching the insurgents had been through mainstream Islamic leaders who, in no way, share the conservative interpretation of Islam, with the Boko Haram sect and, therefore, incapable of motivating genuine dialogue with the Federal Government.

Nigerian Tribune was told that moderate salafi-Wahabists from the North and the South are to be contacted as a starting point in the dialogue process even as it was gathered that Nigeria is reaching outside its shores to moderate salafi organisations across Africa and Middle East.

It was specifically learnt that a particular moderate Islamic organisation based in the North-Central part of the country would soon be contacted as the group is widely acclaimed as the umbrella body of salafiya-wahabiya movement and scholars in Nigeria.

The said organisation was reported to be very influential and very deep in the salafiya thoughts and principles, just as it was gathered that the group, peopled by very enlightened Islamic scholars, is affiliated to an international body of moderate salafiyat movement based in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian political capital.

While details of the outreach were still scanty, findings showed that the new National Security Adviser is deploying softer tactics, especially in reaching out to the grass-roots salafiyas and Muslims population who are reportedly already alienated from the government due to alleged strong arm tactics of the military in the troubled areas.

A source within the establishment told Nigerian Tribune at the weekend that the decision to reach out to the moderate salafists was designed specifically to address the religious component of the Boko Haram crisis.

Referring to Nigerian Tribune’s publication of last Friday, the official noted that efforts to solve and tackle the political and criminal Boko Haram were well underway but accepted that the hard nut to crack is the religionists constituted by followers of the late Mohammed Yusuf.

“We are identifying the salafis, the wahabiyas, especially their moderate leaders. We want them to be the contact point this time round,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the issue of Nigerian participation in the Mali intervention force is creating division within the Nigerian security establishment with some arguing that avoiding Mali would amount to capitulating to international terrorists’ threats.

A military officer told Nigerian Tribune that Nigeria risked a Kenyan scenario if it should deploy troops in Mali, noting that since Kenya intervened in the Somali conflicts, the Central African nation had become a hotbed of terrorist conflicts.

“We are at a cross roads here. The Malian Islamists are already in league with Boko Haram. If we take them on, then the Boko Haram thing will become internationalised and Jihadists all over the world will face Nigeria,” the officer said.

Findings, however, showed that the new National Security Adviser will give formal advice to President Goodluck Jonathan later this week.

via Tribune