Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a controversial Islamic cleric, has criticized Femi Adesina, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, for calling him a “bandit lover.”
“My objective has not failed,” Gumi claims, “but it was undermined or discouraged by the same powerful people who profit from the chaos.” Gumi revealed his opinions on Thursday morning via his well-known Facebook page.
Read the rest of Gumi’s post here:
WAR HAS NEVER BEEN A SOLUTION IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD AT ANY TIME.
You bootlicker who referred to me as a “bandit-lover”! I am a country-lover, a region-lover, a state-lover, a people-lover, and a humanity-lover, to name a few.
I am a board-certified medical doctor who understands how to accurately extract a brain tumor without harming the delicate brain tissues in the process. I was a commissioned military officer who understands the purpose of the military and its capabilities. I am a scholar with a Ph.D. from another country. I am an Islamic scholar who understands the depravity of taking the lives of innocent people. So, in this sea of forgetfulness, silence is not an option for me.
Only a fool would allow his home to be used as a battleground. Unfortunately, there are a lot of fools out there. Killing rats with an iron rod in your rat-infested living room will most likely destroy your devices and furniture without killing any. We should not use weaponry to cover up bad governance.
Some deceitful people claim that peace talks with herdsmen bandits have failed, and that your goal has failed as well.
My objective, I added, had not failed, but it had been undermined or discouraged by the same powerful people who profit from turmoil or who want us to destroy ourselves and leave the herders in permanent ignorance.
We tried amnesty, some remarked, but it didn’t work. You tried amnesia rather than amnesty. Amnesty isn’t amnesty unless it includes rehabilitation, reconciliation, and compensation. If you want to know what an amnesty is, ask former Niger Delta Militants who have slain security personnel in the past. What’s stopping us from establishing a federal ministry of Nomadic Affairs to handle their issues and complaints?
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All of the bandit leaders we met stated that after surrendering their guns, some remorseful ones were selected and extrajudicially executed. Peace and negotiations with them will not succeed until they trust the very unjust system that all Nigerians complain about and for which they used guns to fight. This brings us to our mediation duty. They know we won’t fool them as holy men, so they came out in force to see us. To our surprise, the same unfair system swings around and betrays our peace effort. Some in the press, whom I also refer to as criminals-in-purpose, and some politicians, whom I refer to as urban-bandits, cause the death and infirmity of more people than the bandits do as a result of their shared misuse of our meager resources and misplacement of priorities.
How many Nigerians have died recently from cholera, a water-borne disease, or typhoid, malaria, and malnutrition due to a lack of simply clean water to drink? Because of a lack of suitable maternal health facilities and competent workers, the country has a maternal death rate of almost 500000 per year. A country whose high-priced medical personnel are hunting for a way out of the blaze. Please, such a country!
By the way, you might not know that the bandits have created escape routes from aerial bombardment over time. They warned us that your attacks could only murder our women and children!
Just yesterday, two groups of banditry victims approached me, claiming that their loved ones had been kidnapped by bandits in the Kaduna suburbs of Rigachukun and Keke. When he overheard and realized they were outsiders in the region as they were summoning the villagers to guide them, an escapee engineer in the later said it gave him the courage to slip through heavily cultivated maize crops to escape. The argument is that if Zamfara is on fire for them, it is a foregone conclusion that they will seek refuge elsewhere. So, will the entire country of Nigeria be imprisoned incommunicado?
When it comes to the economic consequences of the places currently under siege, it’ll only be a matter of time before you hear them wailing. A man from Tsafe came begging yesterday because of economic stagnation; one would think that Gusau, the capital, is closer to beg than Kaduna.
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We know the substance of those cynics who have nothing useful to contribute to the situation other than vituperation and abuses. There are no reservations! You don’t expect poo to smell good.
So, what’s the answer?
Excellent Intelligence! Good policing, including the involvement of local herders in policing, as well as the rehabilitation, reconciliation, and recompense of all banditry victims. The protection of people’s rights by a good, honest judiciary. Money and time well spent on these will undoubtedly cure the sickness of delinquency, crime, and poor governance in the country.
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