The planned designation of the Islamist sect,Boko Haram,as a
Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) or International Terrorist Organisation
(ITO) by the United States of America (USA) may not come to pass afterall, it
emerged yesterday in Abuja. 

The Federal Government, according to
highly placed sources,has succeeded in securing a positive commitment from the
US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on the issue. 

Clinton was in Nigeria on Thursday during
which he met with President Goodluck Jonathan, top government officials and
security functionaries. 

Boko Haram and the threat it posed to
the nation topped the agenda at the meetings. 

Besides, the US offered to give
intelligence support and strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to check the menace of
the sect. 

It was gathered that the Federal
Government pleaded with the US Secretary of State and members of her delegation
to shelve the designation plan. 

One source said: “In making a case
against the designation of Boko Haram as a terrorist group, the Federal
Government took into consideration the fact that it will look like a sanction
which will hurt innocent Nigerians. 

“Some people think that the designation
will only hurt Boko Haram members without knowing that all of us will bear the
brunt. 

“We realized that it might scare away
investors from Nigeria and lead to visa restriction and subjection of Nigerians
to maltreatment at airports all over the world, including frisking of their
bodies and other harsh measures. 

“And once the US does that, the EU
countries will follow. The consequence of the designation is that this country
will return to the club of pariah nations. This will surely in turn hurt our
economy. 

“So, the government pleaded with the US
Secretary of State and other top officials against designation. 

“We also succeeded in explaining in
details what we have been doing to check insurgency in some parts of the
country. As a matter of fact, the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, was
at the session to brief the US delegation. 

“The Federal Government delegation was
optimistic that with steps taken so far and its readiness for dialogue, the
Boko Haram menace can be tackled. 

“We were able to convince the
delegation that it will be counter-productive to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist
group since the US considers Nigeria as its‘strategic partner’ in the
sub-region. 

“The US Secretary of State and others
were positive in their response. They agreed with us that there is no need yet
to take a drastic designation action against Boko Haram. 

“So, we are positive that they will
shelve the plan and cooperate with us to strengthen our capacity to address our
security challenges. 

“One of the key areas they are looking
at is about how to assist us in intelligence gathering and empower our security
agencies (in terms of training and exposure) to address the Boko Haram
insurgency.” 

When contacted last night, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, only spoke about the gains of
the bilateral session with the US Secretary of State  without any
reference to security matters. 

He said:”For about two hours, we were
all engrossed with how to improve ties between the two countries. The US
promised to support us and back our reforms. 

“We decided to explore more cooperation
on agriculture, power and petroleum resources. Clinton explained that some
American companies are interested in agriculture and gas turbines in Nigeria
. 

“We are expecting more investors from
the US in these key areas of the economy. It was a major foreign policy
breakthrough for us as a nation.”