Foremost Islamic cleric, Dr. Sheik Ahmed Gumi has condemned the decision of the Federal Government to label the bandits as terrorists, insisting that the action would not achieved the desired goal except the causes of banditry and agitations of the bandits are looked into by the government. He spoke to Isiaka Mustapha and Kassim Omomia of People’s Security Monitor recently at his Kaduna residence.
Excerpts of the interview below
”After the declaration or the acceptance of the government to declare the herdsmen or bandits, terrorists as l said in the news, I don’t think it’s going to change much, practically, or what is happening on the ground, because already the government has been engaging them as terrorists, meaning that they can be killed the extra judicially without any trial, if they are found in the area of battle.
And this has been happening for a long time, even before the inception of this government
Is this not military action.? So if for a long time military action didn’t change them, I don’t think now that it would change them. Military action makes and shape them into the real terrorists, because when you kidnap people to make money is different from when you start massacring people, and this is exactly what we saw recently, in an area in Zamfara State where almost to 200 people were massacred.
This is real terrorism, with its devastating effects. If you don’t read the underlying causes, you exacerbate it and make it difficult. And this is exactly what happened in Zamfara State.
Instead of them (authority) to treat them as criminals; they are treating them as terrorists. So we are inducing into them the idea of terrorism, okay, it doesn’t matter. Another thing we fear is when they now start forming alliances with the Boko Haram ISWA groups which are groups trying to establish a theological state in a modern state, which obviously will entail a lot of prosecution, a lot of suppression, a lot of whatever we’ve seen, what did we know about the areas they are trying to control? So if they have an impetus of the herdsmen, it’s going to be something else.
So, to them it’s like getting more emboldened and notorious with counter attack, since we have been labelled terrorists, so let’s be up to the task. This is exactly what is happening. The development has also imparted in one of the called Turji, Turji is notorious about kidnappings and all the things he does, I’ve sat with him. That was in February, almost close to a year now.
Recently he sent a letter seeking for peaceful negotiations before the declaration of terrorism, whether it was simultaneous, but it was coincidental, because, last February, when we want to sit down with him and hear their grievances, he said yes, we have grievances and we are ready to talk. He made it an open invitation that he needs the Clergymen, the scholars and the government everybody to come on the table and figure out way out of this. And in the long run he said they’re ready to put down their weapons this was well spelt in the letter he sent which was viral everywhere.
But nobody took him serious. And this has continued to be a source of apprehension, because he has played his card by initiating peace move peace. So, whatever he does now he would readily tell you that it’s a self defence mechanism. As a mark of good gesture Turji opted to unilaterilly release all the captives in his camp to proof his readiness for peace. Some people said it’s because of military pressure. Far from it, military pressure makes them kill more. Peace makes them feel shy. And relaxed.
The more pressure you put, the more harden they become. I’m sure that they are ready for peace; but I just don’t know why government cannot engage them. I can reduce this to two issues, you know, government has an ego or they feel if they stoop low to sit with them shows weakness. And I’ve seen government attitude during the ENDSARS protest t when the President was forced to address the nation. When the President was forced to come out and make a national broadcast.
He made it clear in his speech that his decision should not be assumed to be a sign of weakness on the part of his government. It means the government feels whenever it reacts to people’s agitation, people would perceive it as a point of weakness so they don’t want it. What they they failed to realize is that the agitators know government areas of strength, they know where there is no government presence at all. They know government does not exist in some parts of the country. So they practically know your capability or weakness. So I don’t think the issue of ego should hinder the government from having peace. Because if we don’t have peace every minute somebody is dying, and the people dying are innocent people.
So, let’s sit down with them. They know our weakness. We know their weakness. They are Nigerians, they re our brothers and sisters, we can always iron out our problems if we so desire without any form of obstacle. The good thing they said in the long run is that they are ready to put down their weapons and they are not fighting the government unlike Boko Haram.
Secondly, what causes government’s lukewarm response to end insurgency is the fat defence budget of the Nigerian military, there is so much stake in the budget, it’s billions, and it has attracted so many beneficiaries over the years, lot of corrupt people are feasting fat on it, because it’s unaccounted for. So once there is peace, who will approve this billions. So I realized after a year of talking to people going through a dialogue, anybody who’s on the chain of benefiting from security vote is against peace. We are intellectuals too. Because we put we wear turban on our head does not mean we don’t know what’s happening, of course we know. So all those in the chain are benefiting from this billions.
All the beneficiaries of the fat defence budget are opposed to peace; because they are not victims. They don’t ply the bad road, they in their planes flying all the time, and if they opt to pass throuh the insecurity infested roads they provided with more than enough security and escorts, so therefore they don’t feel the heat……Truth be told the government cannot continue to feign ignorance of agitations of the people, and killing the agiatators would not yield any desired result as they think, because if you kill a leader of agitators the man that would take over from him would be more brutal and daring…we all knew what happened when Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yussuf was killed by the Nigerian government, they became more notorious under Shekau, Yusuf’s successor. If they had not killed Yussuf, l know lot of lslamic schorlars that would have prevailed on him to stop fighting. Personally I knew Yusuf.
Let me give you an example like what happened during the Biafran war, do you know that if the Biafran war initiated and ended by Ojukwu had gotten a successor to continue the war after Ojukwu, it would have not only linger on but become more horrible and vicious than what we witnessed, because successors are more brutal than initiators, and it’s like that all over the world. There are more than 130 commanders, in fields, all over the place. So, how many of these leaders would the military kill.? You don’t call agitators criminals. They’re not criminals, they are just agitating over issues in the wrong way. they don’t know how to present their agitations. They are presenting it in a criminal way.
We lots of areas in Nigeria where there is no presence of Nigerian government, not even local government apparatus. It’s even pronounced in the northern parts of Nigeria because of its massive and porous land mass. So anything can go in and come out.
And now, lots of herdsmen are migrating into the neighbouring countries. This is a bad omen. Honestly, speaking, is a bad omen. The consequence means that the bandits are ready for a sustained campaign. Look at the Taliban because they are able to go into the northern Pakistan where the American jurisdiction of fighting stops. So now they have a sanctuary in such countries where they can rest. They can draw up their plan plans come and attack and go back home and attack and go back.”
TO BE CONTINUED