Why officials won’t engage bandits, Boko Haram like Niger Delta militants — Gumi

Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has questioned why government officials have not engaged Boko Haram insurgents and armed bandits through dialogue, drawing parallels with past peace efforts involving Niger Delta militants.

 

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Gumi recalled how former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited militant camps in the Niger Delta as part of efforts to end the region’s prolonged conflict.

 

According to the cleric, the visits led to the development of programmes that helped reduce militancy in the oil-rich region.

 

“The former President Jonathan visited delta militants in the creeks, so also the former vice president Osinbajo. They all came up with a program to tame the militants,” he wrote.

 

Gumi questioned why a similar approach has not been adopted for insurgents and bandits operating in northern Nigeria.

 

“Who is going to visit BH and Bandits to tame them without fools castigating them?” he asked.

 

The cleric has long advocated dialogue as a strategy for addressing insecurity in the North-West and North-East. Over the years, he has visited bandit camps in states including Zamfara, arguing that negotiations and rehabilitation offer a better path to lasting peace than military action alone.

 

His position has generated mixed reactions. While some credit his interventions with facilitating the release of kidnap victims, others accuse him of giving legitimacy to armed groups responsible for killings, kidnappings and other violent crimes.

 

Gumi has consistently rejected allegations of supporting terrorism, maintaining that his engagement with armed groups is aimed solely at ending violence through peaceful dialogue.

 

The Federal Government’s Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, introduced in 2009 under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and continued by Jonathan, encouraged thousands of militants to surrender their weapons in exchange for training, stipends and reintegration, significantly reducing attacks on oil installations in the region.

 

Jonathan had earlier visited militant camps in the Niger Delta while serving as vice president, a move he later said helped lay the foundation for the amnesty initiative.

 

Osinbajo also visited communities in the region as acting president in 2017, meeting with militants and traditional rulers.

 

He defended the outreach at the time, saying those involved were Nigerian citizens with legitimate grievances that required engagement alongside security measures.