Nigeria has continued to flounder on account of divisive utterances by individuals and groups that believe they are above the law or that suffer from entitlement mentality.
Despite the provisions of the laws of the land that clearly say that inciting people against others is a punishable offence, such laws are not being respected in the country.
Although those in government also parrot indivisibility of Nigeria and their avowed commitment to upholding that oneness, all their actions belie their pronouncements.
For some time now, Nigerians have watched in astonishment as non-state actors arrogate to themselves powers that they do not have. They claim they own every part of the country and the right to do whatsoever that pleases them. Unfortunately, government of the day has continued to allow them to ply their dangerous trade.
In the last few weeks, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, an Islamic scholar, has been making newspaper headlines. The Islamic cleric has been leading negotiations with terrorists in the forests in North West geo-political zone of the country.
He drew the ire of many Nigerians when he canvassed an amnesty for terrorists that have been abducting innocent citizens in that part of the country.
“I appeal to the government and recommend that government should do to them exactly what they did to the Niger Delta militants and give them a blanket amnesty. Then, if anybody will continue we will deal with him,” he told journalists in the wake of the abduction of some students, staff and their relations from Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State.
Gumi, who appears to have been a recognised negotiator in government circles and speaks with authority, recently talked about how he travels to various parts of the country to negotiate with bandits.
He had also insisted that the armed Fulani herdsmen were not bandits but militants fighting for ethnic survival.
“It is a complex issue. It is an ethnic war and the solution is dialogue and teaching them Islam. To them, they are talking about an ethnic existence,” he said.
Asked if the bandits are Nigerians, Gumi said: “They are Nigerians. I hate to call them bandits. They are militants fighting for ethnic survival. They want to defend themselves. If there is peace, you will not see such things as banditry, kidnapping, among others.”
Gumi waxed garrulous when he claimed that “They are not killing people; they are just engaged in ethnic revenge. The Fulani herdsmen are victims of military excesses. The armed herdsmen are kidnapping to make money.”
When asked why it is difficult for the military intelligence to know where the bandits are, the cleric said: “The military knows where they are. When they go in and start killing, the military realise they are creating a monster. The Federal Government should go in and negotiate.”
He also recently made a controversial and dangerous claim that Christian soldiers were killing the bandits, thereby putting a religious coloration to the insecurity ravaging the north, and setting one religion against another.
He further escalated the allegation by the bandits that the military have killed hundreds of innocent Fulani herders and members of their families.
An analyst had noted that Gumi’s statement that he was informed by an army officer that it was Christian soldiers who killed herders while on a mission to tackle cattle rustling in 2014 “is highly condemnable and should not have come from an eminent cleric like him.”
To start with, to premise his amnesty call on the Niger Delta example was very wrong. The cases are not the same.
Whereas the Niger Delta militants had a genuine reason for taking to arms, as it were, the terrorists have no such reason.
For instance, the Niger Delta bears the oil, the main-stay of Nigeria, yet the area is like a war-torn zone. It has remained the least developed part of Nigeria, year-in, year-out.
The militancy in the Niger Delta took a different turn after the youths were ferried to Abuja for the Daniel Kanu’s sponsored 2 Million Man March for the late General Sani Abacha, under the infamous Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA), in 1998. It was a campaign formed in 1997 to urge Abacha to transmute into a civilian president.
When the Niger Delta youths saw the splendor in Abuja, made possible by the petro-dollar from their domain, and compared it with the squalid nature of the Niger Delta, they decided to go more violent to press home their agitation for a better deal.
But that is hardly the case with the banditry and terrorism being witnessed in the North. Boko Haram, for instance, started in Borno State from political thuggery. Politicians were said to have used some youths to win elections and later dumped them.
Others with the name of bandits or militias were also said to have been armed by politicians and after elections, the arms were not retrieved; hence, the escalation of kidnapping and banditry in parts of North.
Some herdsmen who spoke on viral videos on social media confessed that the AK-47 they are carrying about were given to them by politicians and highly placed individuals in society.
So, it is wrong to call for amnesty for terrorists just because militants in the Niger Delta were given amnesty. The bandits and Boko Haram are free to go after those that offended them by reneging on their agreement; the Nigerian nation has not offended them as was the case with the Niger Delta agitators.
It needs to be restated that it would be immoral to grant amnesty to criminals who had wasted innocent lives for no just cause. Meanwhile, the relations of those killed would be in abject poverty by losing their bread winners, whereas those that killed them in cold-blood would be treated as kings, pampered and sent abroad on scholarship!
Sadly, despite all the dangerous fires Gumi is stoking, the Presidency has neither cautioned him nor directed his arrest by relevant security agencies. This speaks volume of the tactical support and shield that Gumi and his likes are enjoying in a secular state (an idea pertaining to secularity, whereby a state is or purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion – Wikipedia).
This is not an isolated case as divisive utterances by some individuals and groups in the north have gone un-upbraided by the Federal Government, a situation that appears to have eroded the confidence of many citizens in Abuja.
It is salutary however, that the Nigerian Army decided to bare its fangs, warning Gumi and other “opinion merchants” to exercise restraint with their utterances.
Mohammed Yerima, a brigadier-general and director, Army Public Relations, the other day warned Gumi to refrain from causing disaffection and divisiveness among the Nigerian army.
“The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a viral video-clip showing the renowned and respected Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi alleging that non-Muslim soldiers were responsible for the attacks against bandits.
“In the video clip, the Islamic scholar was seen telling the bandits that the soldiers involved in most attacks against them were non-Muslims. He further stated that they should be aware that soldiers are divided into Muslims and non-Muslims,” Yerima said.
According to him, “While the Nigerian Army would not want to join issues with the respected Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, it is, however, important to restate that the Nigerian Army as national institution does not deploy its troops along ethnic or religious lines.
“Therefore, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi and other opinion merchants are please enjoined to exercise restraint not to drag the image and reputation of one of the most reliable national institutions to disrepute”.
It is hoped that the warning would go a long way to taming, not just Gumi, but all those that have taken advantage of Aso Rock’s ostrich’s style of problem-solving.
