Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, has remained a threat to the unity of Nigeria and has never hidden or pretended about the fact that he would be prepared to do anything and everything to promote his narrow and selfish interests in the name of being an Islamic cleric. His incendiary comments and divisive tendencies can only have endured thus far because he is not alone in this pursuit and has the backing of some powerful sympathisers.
Interestingly and in spite of his reckless outbursts and outlandish recommendations this man has continued to enjoy the liberty to do more. How many Nigerians can dare do what Gumi has done and still walk freely? These are the kind of things that you see and wonder if there are indeed not different sets of laws for the different people in this country.
Gumi’s love for bandits is legendary. His consistent push for their comfort and satisfaction at the expense of their victims and the nation is not hidden. A so-called cleric who has continued to call for compensation and rehabilitation for a group of felons who have visited the worst form of crime against the land, with no word for their victims, makes one wonder if indeed he is an Islamic cleric and not a bandit himself.
Sometime in 2021, Gumi had had a disagreement with his ally, and former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, after he recommended that the state government should use the security budget to address the demands of bandits. This was coming after El-Rufai had openly admitted paying herdsmen in 2016.
Although the sincerity of El-Rufai in the fight against these bandits appeared a decoy, because he not only looked away while the bandits went on rampage but also tried in vain to rationalise their murderous activities, he still made a remark that would ordinarily be instructive to the likes of Gumi when he had said, “Anybody that thinks a Fulani man that ventured into kidnapping for ransom and he is earning millions of naira would go back to his former life of getting N100,000 after selling a cow in a year must be deceiving himself.
“Why should they be compensated after killing people, destroying their houses. Who offended them?” Mr. El-Rufai had said.
Over our recent past, Gumi has always suggested all kinds of considerations for bandits. He once suggested that bandits be adequately compensated with cattle, lands, money and at some other times, he had pleaded with the government to allow bandits to guard our forests for peace to reign, begging that they should be granted blanket amnesty. His comparison of these felons with Niger Delta militants smarks of mischief and dishonesty because like El-Rufai asked who offended them? Who does not know about the fate of the Niger Delta region?
Prior to the presidential elections of this year, Gumi had called on the electorate in the north to vote for leaders who won’t fight bandits, because they are their people.
In his evil sermon, the controversial cleric urged Nigerians to vote for leaders who would negotiate with bandits who have been ravaging states like Plateau, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Kaduna, and Taraba. Even Southern Nigeria has also come under several of such attacks.
Describing bandits as “our people,” Gumi said Nigeria’s next set of leaders should negotiate and give bandits what they want for peace to reign.
“Don’t vote for those who will fight bandits. The fighters (bandits) are our people. So please vote for those who, after attaining power, will call and negotiate with our people (bandits) so as to give them what they want for peace to reign,” he said.
Recall that this was exactly how Boko Haram insurgency started and the elite in the north, including former President Muhammadu Buhari, supported these killers and were blackmailing former President, Goodluck Jonathan, to negotiate with the group. They were so persistent that Jonathan asked them to invite their leaders for a meeting, which never happened. At some point, the northern elite also accused Jonathan of eliminating their youths in the guise of fighting terrorism.
Eventually, these bloodthirsty murderers became so ferocious that not even their sympathisers like Buhari, were spared. When they started by bombing churches in Abuja and the north, there was conspiratorial silence until they started attacking mosques as well.
When you ride a tiger you risk ending up in its stomach. Everywhere else, terror is met with superior firepower, but in Nigeria it is okay as long as our family is spared.
These beloved bandits of Gumi have abducted and killed lots of persons while collecting ransom worth millions of naira. Gumi, as a lover of bandits, has negotiated several deals with them on behalf of the government. He has also negotiated release of kidnap victims with bandits on behalf of helpless families whose loved ones are with these bandits. He knows the route to their hideouts but the government and the military do not know. Does this not tell you something?
This same cleric from hell, again, recently sparked widespread outrage in a sermon he delivered at a mosque in Kaduna where he reportedly declared that Southerners and Christians cannot be trusted with the nation’s security.
Gumi was reported to have said during the sermon that President Bola Tinubu would not be allowed to remain in power for the next four years if he failed to meet specific demands.
He was also said to have accused the President of planning to turn Abuja into Tel Aviv (Israeli capital) where Muslims would be targeted and killed because the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike, received the Israeli Ambassador in his office.
As long as Nigeria remains one, Gumi should not be allowed to go unpunished. It’s now clear that the total dominance of Abuja, the military and other vital structures of state by the north is because of this kind of reasoning. Abuja, a so-called federal capital territory, has been administered only by northerners, until Nyesom Wike, because of this kind of reasoning. Are you still wondering why all key military installations and armaments are located in the north? Or are you still thinking that the decision of Buhari to appoint all service chiefs from the north was a mere coincidence?
Are we still intent on building a united and indivisible nation? If the answer is to the affirmative then a solution to the problem called Sheik Gumi has to be found. That we have been stuttering with the war against terror is because the political class is mostly dominated by the likes of Gumi. That’s why even when some of them were exposed under Buhari, he did not raise a finger but instead rewarded them with juicy appointments.
Those who call for restructuring of this nation know that with the kind of leadership mindset of the Gumis, attaining nationhood would remain a mirage or flitting illusion to be pursued but never attained and everywhere will be war; apologies to the late legendary musician Bob Marley.
Is President Tinubu prepared to secure this nation or is he also intent on pampering Gumi and his fellow bandit-lovers? For any meaningful progress to be made against terrorism and other forms of insecurity, the president must be brutal and total in his commitments to the fight. He must ensure that the morale of our soldiers is high and their welfare given topmost priority. He must go after all those who have constituted themselves as enablers of this crime against the nation, including those of them in the military who have made the fight against insecurity an economic venture.
How can we sincerely be talking about one Nigeria when divisive elements like Gumi are given the leeway to prowl around making unpatriotic and incendiary comments while those with by far lesser offences like Nnamdi Kanu are still being detained and hounded by security operatives? How can we build one Nigeria when some northern elements like Gumi think they will always have the upper hand and perpetually be in control? It cannot work; so the earlier we sit down and talk on the conditions and terms of this union, the better for us all.
Or is Sheik Gumi above the law?
