By Saidu Ibrahim Emirokpa
Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, the prominent Northern Muslim cleric who acts as the independent mediator between terror bandits in the North and Nigerian government, betrays an unacceptable level of his clericalism when he withdrew from his mission.
Since he came into limelight in February when he visited terrorist groups in their forest hideouts in Zamfara, Gumi had mediated the release of many hostages captured by the terrorists in Katsina, Niger, including Kaduna, his home state.
Two weeks ago, the Sheikh renounced his mediatory role amid confusing skepticism just like the Kano-born activist, Ms. Zainab Naseer Ahmad, who pulled out of the anti-government protests after her romance with the Directorate of State Security (DSS).
Gumi was also reported to have been invited and probably grilled by the Department of SSS in Kaduna, a report he refuted in an interview but assented by DSS Spokesman. There is so much unanswered questions when anti-government advocates had a handshake with security agencies of the government.
Gumi’s new position, which appears rather incongruent with his clerical and military disposition, was based on the federal government’s recent declaration of bandits as terrorists. “Since the Federal government has declared them terrorists,” the Sheikh said, “I don’t have anything to do with them anymore.”
Gumi further explained that it would be dangerous to continue mediating and putting himself on unnecessary “spotlight” but acquiesced he would remain as a “spectator in the crisis” until political environment proves to the contrary.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had in November 26 declared “bandit groups” as “terrorists” and since then the bandits have become more provocative and crueller in their brutal activities.
We all saw the image of that cruelty in the multiple attacks that rocked Sokoto, Katsina and Niger States simultaneously two weeks ago, and more recently, Kaduna-Zaria road on Monday last week where bandits murdered two persons and abducted scores of travellers.
Until his engagement with the media which was politicised or largely misinterpreted as an “appeasement” of the monsters we’re antagonizing, Gumi started well and, if I may add, meant well for the nation.
Despite the sharp criticisms that followed his mediatory role, I had expected the Sheikh who doubles as cleric and former captain in the Nigerian Army to prove his critics wrong and pursue this mischaracterized peace mission to the fullest. But he didn’t and instead provided a mirror for a cast of grief-stricken people to look and make judgement based on their perception.
For instance, in February, a viral online video showed Gumi accusing the Nigerian Army of double standard, blaming them for harbouring bad eggs who collude with the terror bandits to launch attacks.
He censured especially the non-Muslim army officers in the military’s counter insurgency efforts of killing bandits recklessly.
The military, however, fiercely countered that the Sheikh “deliberately wanted to disparage the Nigerian Army to portray it in bad light,” just as the influential Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) described it as a mischievous agenda that has the potential to divide the country along religious and ethnic lines.
In another remark, the Sheikh compared terror bandits to coup plotters and demanded that bandits be given state pardon as did coup plotters during the military era.
Comparing bandits with militias, he said bandits in the north learn the art of kidnapping and hostage taking from their Masters in the Niger Delta creeks who have received ransoms running into billions of naira from govt and kidnapped expatriate oil workers. However they were granted amnesty by former President Umar Yar’adua in 2009 thus, Gumi demanded that their counterparts in the north be given similar treatment.
In another turn he advocated recruitment of bandits into the military or be assigned the task of guarding the forests against terrorists like themselves as did former President Good luck Jonathan who employed members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, as petrol pipeline guards.
People aren’t much critical of gov’t’s double standard as they’re of Gumi’s blanket advocacy. We’re in the middle of existential threats and attempts to restore sanity have always been met with fierce resistance from individuals and or government.
The Federal Govt keeps budgeting billions of taxpayers’ money misnamed “security votes” into fighting banditry yet the future looks darker and bleaker.
Gumi’s blanket advocacy may have stirred controversies and make him the subject of demonizing labels. But this isn’t peculiar to him alone.
Even President Buhari had his own share of the mischievous label. In 2012, Boko Haram terrorists picked Buhari as the leading impartial arbitrator between them and Federal Government.
Ironically, the saintly mediator narrowly escaped death in twin bomb blasts that rocked Kaduna during Ramadan in July 2014. Buhari himself, in a statement, admitted that it was “clearly an assassination attempt” on his life but thanked God he “came out unhurt.”
Our different perceptions about violent extremism and government’s responses to it, clearly explain our inability to discern beyond ethnic, religious or regional sentiments.
Gumi has left so many questions grilling in our minds.
But as President Buhari celebrates a “surprise” 79th birthday in faraway Turkey’s Istanbul while the nation terribly grieves under his watch, one thing is certain: that this cruelty is a sharp money-grubbing enterprise that the Nigerian capitalist profiteers aren’t ready to let go soon.
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