Why Negotiating with Agitators Is Not a Weakness: Lessons from Yar’Adua, Tinubu and Peter Obi

This post argues that calling Peter Obi’s plan to dialogue with South-East agitators “weakness” ignores Nigeria’s own history. President Yar’Adua secured peace in the Niger Delta through amnesty talks in 2009. Pipeline attacks fell and oil output more than doubled. Under President Tinubu, controversial figures like Sunday Igboho were released without trial, and ex-Boko Haram fighters have been reintegrated under Operation Safe Corridor. Dialogue and conditional release are already established strategies. Peter Obi’s proposal follows the same logic: address root causes, remove symbols of agitation like Nnamdi Kanu, and give peace a chance. If amnesty worked in the Delta and deradicalization worked in the North, the South-East deserves the same honest debate without partisan name-calling. What do you think? Should negotiation with agitators be evaluated by its results rather than who proposes it?

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