President Goodluck Jonathan has challenged the violent Islamist Boko Haram sect on Thursday to identify themselves and state clearly their demands as a basis for talks, while acknowledging that military confrontation alone will not end their insurgency.
In an interview with Reuters at the presidential villa in the capital Abuja, Jonathan said there was no doubt that Boko Haram had links with other jihadist groups outside Nigeria.
The sect killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 in the first weeks of 2012 in gun and bomb attacks in Africa's top oil producer, Human Rights Watch said this week.
Coordinated attacks in the northern city of Kano killed 186 people on Friday in its most deadly strike to date, prompting the president to visit surviving victims.
"If they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason why we are resisting, this is the reason why we are confronting government or this is the reason why we destroy some innocent people and their properties ... then there will be a basis for dialogue," said Jonathan.
"We will dialogue, let us know your problems and we will solve your problem but if they don't identify themselves, who will you dialogue with?" That was because the Islamist militants do not have a clear public figurehead or negotiable aims, he said.
"If anybody invited Osama bin Laden (to talks), he wouldn't have appeared ... Boko Haram, if you invite them, they will not come. They operate without a face, they operate without a clear identity, so it is difficult to interface with such a group."
"That is the greatest difference between Boko Haram ... and the Niger Delta issue," he said, flanked by a larger-than-life portrait and Nigeria flags. Security experts say there is growing evidence the group, or some members within it, have received training and support from other jihadist groups such as al Qaeda's north African wing.
By Tim Cocks, Joe Brock and Felix Onuah | Reuters
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