Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As calls for the reassessment of the security architecture of Nigeria continue, a renown Kaduna-based Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, said the government has lost its grip thereby not in control.
He advised President Muhammadu Buhari to invest more on the country’s education sector instead of acquiring weapons, which has not yielded commensurate results within the years under review.
Gumi is of the opinion that what Nigeria needs is a total overhaul of the whole system by way of depoliticising a lot of things in the country especially the issues around security quickly adding that, although the idea behind the state police is good, he however contended that it would not work if the present system continued.
The Sheikh in an exclusive interview with Sunday Sun in Kaduna expressed concerned that, if millions of US Dollars the Nigerian government is spending on the procurement of fighting aircraft had been spent on education, the country would not have been in the mess it found itself today.
“We have to look at it holistically. We have to look at restructuring of the whole system. We can have a model like America system but in African way. In Nigeria whereby states can promulgate laws, can run the country and control their resources to some extent.
“A restructure that can lead to efficient federal government which can supervise to see to it that every citizen’s rights are protected. Though states may want to suppress the minority. That is where the federal government is to come in because there is minority everywhere. If that is done, I think there will be peace in Nigeria. It is not through the state police alone”, he suggested.
“The government has lost the grip. It is not in control. The rural areas and desolates are being controlled by bandits.
“A policeman came to me, seeking assistance. He told me how he narrowly missed death in one of his encounters with bandits. He said, there was even a military post close to them. What was that, one Fulani man caught in the market with a rifle.
“They arrested him, took him to the police post, but as they were taken him for questioning, they saw more than 100 armed Fulani men on motorcycles. Some in twos, some in threes, coming towards them. What saved him, was the ridges on the farm which prevented the motorcycles from running fast to catch up with him.
“That was how he ran and hid himself in a cafe. What that means was that, they were asking why should you come and take our man? All his colleagues that were left behind were killed. What I’m telling you happened about two years back because they were in total control.