From Noah Ebije, Kaduna

Alhaji Tukur Mamu, the Media Consultant and Aide to Kaduna based Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has disclosed why several moves made by the Cleric to broker peace between bandits and the Federal government did not yield the desired result.

Mamu said one of the reasons why the peace move did not work out was because the Presidency allegedly refused to have audience with Sheikh Gumi.

Apparently reacting to an interview published by our sister publication, Sunday Sun, penultimate week where the Islamic Cleric was accused of supporting the activities of bandits, the Media Aide said if there is anybody that is so worried and troubled by blood of innocent citizens being wasted by bandits, it is Sheikh Gumi.

Sheik Gumi had advocated dialogue, amnesty as well as monetary compensation for the bandits by the federal government as part of measures to end bloodletting across the country.

However, in the Sunday Sun interview, Secretary of North West zone of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Mr. Sunday Oibe said Gumi’s advocacy for the bandits was suspicious since he did not make similar case for victims of banditry and kidnapping in the country.

“We used to laugh when people say government is over protecting or having interest , or something like that regarding the activities of Sheikh Gumi with bandits. It is not the first time you will hear people, for example, saying Gumi is protecting bandits, governments are supporting him, he supposed to be arrested, and all sort of comments.

“The reason why I said so, I gave a very clear example. The relationship between the current President and Sheikh Gumi is not a cordial relationship. If it were cordial, the Sheikh wouldn’t spend months trying to see the President and would not be even granted access to see him. This is something they should know.

“What I emphasised is that if there is anybody, I want to be on record, if there is anybody, that is looking for anything no matter how small in Gumi to arrest him, that person is President Buhari .I want to say it without any fear of contradiction.

“We know what is happening. The President is aggrieved with the Sheikh because of so many reasons. For that, no matter what the Sheikh initiated, no matter how laudable anything that will come from the Sheikh, the President will not welcome it.

“If not, we have gotten the support of top security officers including the NSA, the DG SSS, Nigerian Police Force, all the top security chiefs, at one time or the other, they had cooperated with what we were doing.

“But no matter what you do, you have to get the encouragement or the approval from the above for you to even succeed.

“That is why most of the missions ended in failure despite our sacrifice and determination to reach out to these people.

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“For the record, I would have wished for the respected CAN Secretary to reflect on so many other things. Part of the things he will reflect is ,for example, what the government has done so far related to bombardment which we believe is more of propaganda than reality.

“What the government has done so far related to wasting billions of Naira from tax payers money to buy Tucano jets, most of them over inflated projects, contracts that ended up enriching few people in the security circle. What the government has so far succeeded doing compared to the amount of resources that has so far been spent, is not commensurate at all.

“It is something really , very questionable that every sensible Nigerian should ask himself…there are very few cliques that are really benefitting from these war against insecurity. That is why anytime you will hear the name of Sheikh Gumi, for example to either condemn the initiative or to discredit it. To give it a different picture that will even create more division, for example between Christians and Muslims.

“But the Sheikh is telling them, ..how can you even put religion, for example, on issues that have to do with security? If these bandits are attacking or are on rampage, are they targeting Muslims only or both Muslims and Christians? They don’t care who you are. They don’t care whether you are a Muslim or a Christian, what faith you belong to. Most of them that have, in one way or another, became victims, they can tell you how barbaric they are. How criminal they can be.

“So, what the Sheikh is saying is that, if for example as a nation, we know that we are honest in our military spending, we know that we are prudent in our military spending, if as a nation we know that most of this money is not diverted to the pockets of few military officers, if we know as a nation we have proper intelligence, to extract information and then ,apprehend these criminals. head on, if we know that as a nation, for example we have the capacity to crush these elements once and for all ,so that the nation will live in peace, then go ahead and do it.

“But in a country whereby you are lacking in all these things that I have mentioned, then what option do you have as a responsible leader to ensure that you preserve even one single soul?

“Is negotiation, is dialogue, is amnesty, not the best option as long as you will protect innocent lives from being killed everyday? From being kidnapped everyday?

“So that is what the Sheikh is saying everyday and that’s what a lot of critics failed to understand. And what difference does it make , for example now out of media blackmail,…bandits are terrorists today. And then tomorrow, you don’t have any new method that will make sure it ends the terror action. What difference does that make?

“So, what we are saying is that, if for example there will be something new, for example the announcement of the prescription of anything that has to do with banditry or terrorism,…we know it is a terror act. But he is afraid these people have not being indoctrinated like Boko Haram. Because Boko Haram people believe if they die they are going to heaven. So this is a religious war, as far as they are concerned.

“The bandits are fighting economic war because of so many things that happened in the past. Most of them are victims of cattle rustling, you will find that one Fulani man will have more than 200 cows. He will wake up in a day and discover that they have been rustled. At the end of the day a Fulani man values his cow more than his religion.

“So what option do you have, if for example somebody that is dispossessed of everything he has, then he got AK 47.He doesn’t have Islamic knowledge, no conventional knowledge, a completely ignorant person and you think he cannot be exploited?

“So that is why the approach of the Sheikh is that for you to even bring this thing to an end, you must go back to the drawing board. You have to understand the genesis of the crisis. If there is any issue of injustice that is being done to these people, you have to address this injustice first”. Mamu stated.