Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the lead counsel to detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has warned the Federal Government against using military force as a substitute for dialogue in tackling agitations across the country.
Ejiofor issued the warning in a statement titled, ‘Boko Haram: An invented name and the unlearned lessons of history’, shared via X on Saturday, cautioning that no nation ever silenced a cry for justice through the barrel of a gun.
He called on the government to return to the path of engagement, empathy, and reconciliation if it truly seeks lasting peace.
The lawyer’s intervention is coming in the wake of renewed debate over the roots of Boko Haram’s insurgency and the state’s response.
Recall that former President Jonathan stirred controversy on Friday when he claimed that during his tenure, Boko Haram insurgents once nominated then-General Muhammadu Buhari to represent them in peace talks, a claim swiftly dismissed as false by Buhari’s former spokesman, Garba Shehu.
Weighing in on the recent national conversations triggered by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor’s new book, Scars, Ejiofor drew attention to remarks made at its public presentation in Abuja on Friday.
He took reference from the book review delivered by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rt. Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, who described Boko Haram as an invented name that grew into a psychological weapon of fear.
He said the bishop’s reflections highlighted how manipulation, desperation, and mismanagement of narratives often drive conflicts more than ideology itself.
According to him, Kukah’s message underscored the need for national introspection on how language and state response could deepen or defuse crises.
The lead lawyer for Nnamdi Kanu also cited interventions at the event by former President Goodluck Jonathan, who revisited his administration’s encounters with insurgency.
DAILY POST reports that Jonathan had revealed that intelligence reports once showed Boko Haram fighters possessing weapons more sophisticated than those of Nigerian troops.
The former Nigerian leader further contrasted the group’s violence with his personal engagement in resolving the Niger Delta crisis, noting that dialogue and rehabilitation, not force, secured peace in the region.
Drawing a parallel, Ejiofor lamented that the Federal Government failed to adopt a similar approach when peaceful agitation emerged from Nigeria’s South-East between 2015 and 2017.
“The proscription marked the beginning of an unending cycle of mistrust, violence, and alienation.
“Rather than address the underlying grievances, the government chose a blanket suppression that inadvertently legitimised the use of force where empathy was needed,” Ejiofor stated.
Insecurity: Nigerian Govt can’t silence justice with bullets – Kanu’s lawyer