Late former President Muhammadu Buhari
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has strongly refuted recent claims by former President Goodluck Jonathan that late President Muhammadu Buhari was nominated by Boko Haram to mediate in a proposed peace dialogue with the Federal Government.
In a sharp rebuttal issued this weekend, the CPC described Jonathan’s remarks as “a false start” to his speculated 2027 presidential ambition and labeled the statement as both misleading and revisionist.
> “To be president in 2027, Goodluck Jonathan should look for another story to tell Nigerians,” the statement read.
“Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the Boko Haram terrorist group, never nominated Muhammadu Buhari for any such role. In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition.”
The CPC further recalled that in 2014, Buhari narrowly escaped a bomb attack by Boko Haram in Kaduna, underscoring that the group viewed the former military leader as an enemy rather than an ally.
The party also referenced a 2012 press statement by its then National Secretary, Engr. Buba Galadima, in which Buhari unequivocally denied knowledge of any nomination by the terrorist group.
> “As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it,” Galadima was quoted as saying.
“The whole thing to him is just speculation. Since nobody has contacted him to even know who is behind it and what the motives are, he would not speak to the press.”
Buhari, according to Galadima, also reiterated that as an elder statesman and patriotic Nigerian, he would continue to pray for the return of peace and tranquillity to Nigeria.
The confusion appears to have originated from a 2012 press briefing in Maiduguri by a little-known figure, Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to speak for Boko Haram. Abdulaziz named Buhari and other northern leaders as preferred mediators—claims later disavowed by Boko Haram’s known leadership under Abubakar Shekau.
> “Abdulaziz had no mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau,” the statement noted, adding that the announcement was possibly orchestrated by political actors to smear Buhari’s anti-terror stance.
Late Rotimi Fashekun, then CPC National Publicity Secretary, also dismissed the narrative at the time, accusing the Jonathan administration and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of using Buhari’s alleged nomination for political gain.
> “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,” Fashekun had said.
The CPC’s latest statement underscores its commitment to correcting what it calls “a dangerous distortion of history” and insists that President Buhari was never aligned—directly or indirectly—with Boko Haram at any point.
