By Omoniyi Salaudeen

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Firebrand Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, is the man of the moment for questionable reasons. As circumstance of the time dictates, he is currently the Peace Ambassador, interfacing between the government and the armed bandits who have been terrorizing, killing and kidnapping innocent citizens for ransom across the geo-political zones of the country.
To be sure, the Federal Government has not declared its inability to tame these monsters, and it is unexpected that it would do so for whatever reason. But the recent escalation of insecurity, orgy of violence and the impunity with which terrorist groups have continued to unleash terror on their victims is a clear indication that the security operatives are apparently overwhelmed, that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration which made security the topmost priority of its three-pronged agenda is also confused about it.
It is a dire situation. Like a gargantuan purulent sore, the style of operation hitherto adopted by these bandits has metastasized to mass abduction of vulnerable school children in their hostels. The latest in the series of such incidents is the Friday’s attack on Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, where about 300 students were said to have been kidnapped by armed bandits.
This followed an earlier abduction of 20 students at Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, Niger State, which prompted Governor Abubakar Sani Bello to accede to Gumi’s dialogue option.
In the recent past, Zamfara and Niger are the two most affected states by bandits’ attacks. And it was for this reason that Sheikh Gumi had decided to carry his message of peace to the bandits’ hideout in Zamfara State where he openly took pictures with the leaders of the dreaded groups to assure the concerned people that he is up to the task.
Further to the success of his visit to Zamfara, he has also been involved in an ongoing talks with Dogo Gide, the notorious bandit leader at Dutsen Magaji Forest, in Niger State, to secure the release of the hapless school children held in captivity as well as 30 passengers on board the state-owned transport service bus at the instance of the governor. Commendable as it were, he is pursuing the cause in a wrong way.
According the media reports, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Babagana Monguno, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola as well as his counterpart in the Information Ministry, Lai Mohammed, were all present at the meeting with Sheikh Gumi at the Government House, Minna, the Niger State capital.
Part of his recipe for sustainable peace is for the governor to deploy some good percentage of the money his administration is spending on security to address some of the major concerns and grievances of the Fulani herdsmen.
Crying more than the wailers, he noted that governments at all levels had failed to make provision for the welfare of Fulani herdsmen in previous budgets. Guess what? The host governor, in his desperation to get out of the quagmire, told his guests that he would give adequate priority attention to the provision of basic amenities like schools, water for human and animal consumption, clinics and job creation to the blood-thirsty marauders.
While one may argue that no amount of sacrifice made can be too much at a critical time like this, projecting the interest of a particular ethnic group far and above the collective interest of the nation raises a lot of questions. The motive is suspect.  The fiery Islamic preacher further demonstrated his bias and prejudice when he allegedly plunged himself into the controversy about religious profiling of military operatives. When he met with suspected bandits in Tegina forest, on the border between Niger and Kaduna states, Gumi was allegedly quoted as saying that non-Muslim soldiers carried out orchestrated killings of bandits and consequently precipitating their anger.
He allegedly made the assertion when the bandits took him to a community razed down by military bombardments, and corpses were dumped in wells.
“What I want you people to understand is, soldiers that are involved in most of the criminalities are not Muslims. You know, soldiers have Muslims and non-Muslims. The non-Muslims are the ones causing confusion just to ignite a crisis,” Sheikh Gumi said.
With such a divisive mindset, the irreverent Islamic scholar has lost all the moral rights to lead the dialogue with terrorists or negotiate their amnesty.
In a swift response to the unrestraint outburst, a concerned group under the aegis of North East Elders for Peace and Development (NEEPD), dissociating itself from Gumi’s position, said “the allegations did not represent the position of the region and appealed to the public to see the claims as personal sentiments of the cleric.”
A statement signed by the National Coordinator of the group, Zana Goni, reads in part:  “We rise in one voice to dissociate ourselves from the dangerous and divisive allegations levelled against our patriotic soldiers by Sheikh Gumi, in one of his missions to meet with bandits in a forest around Niger State”.
“To douse this tension, therefore, we call on relevant authorities, including prominent individuals and groups from the North, to condemn Gumi’s position in a manner that will absolve the region of conspiracy and vicarious liability, in the long run.
“Lastly, we urge Gumi to stop approbating and reprobating at the same time, and to immediately call off his mission, if he has developed lethargy in the course of undertaking visits to deep forests.”
Beyond what Gumi did right or did wrong, the whole talk about amnesty looks very clumsy. On one hand, investing confidence in an individual to undertake such a sensitive initiative is a clear abdication of government’s responsibility. And on the flipside, the presence of Mongunu, Aregbesola and Muhammed at a meeting with Gumi in Minna also confirmed the apparent lack of capacity of this government to protect lives and property of the people from incessant attacks.
Above all, it underscores the hypocrisy of government which has refused to send helicopter, gunships or artillery to the forests of Zamfara, Katsina or Niger to flush bandits, but rather found it convenient to deploy military to Orlu in Imo State for no other reason other than the audacity of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) to stand up to the belligerent herdsmen who have been terrorizing the people.
Ahmad Abubakar Gumi is the eldest son of the late Sheikh Abubakar Gumi. Born in Kano State in 1960, Gumi attended Sardauna Memorial College (SMC) for his senior secondary education and later proceeded to the Ahmadu Bello University to study medicine.
Upon his graduation, he was enlisted into the Nigeria Defence Academy where he served in the Nigerian Army Medical Corp (NAMC) as a medical officer, and retired as a Captain.
He later moved to Saudi Arabia to further his Islamic education at the Umm al-Qura University where he studied Islamic Jurisprudence and Tafsir and obtained his Ph.D. He succeeded his father as the scholar of the central mosque Kaduna (Sultan Bello). He is the current Mufti and Mufassir at the Kaduna central mosque Sultan Bello.